A Simple Secret
by Dr. Juicy Cushion
Summary: Namikaze Naruto was both five years before the fox attack. His younger sister Uzumaki Rei had the Nine Tails sealed inside of her. However with the intention of protecting the village, it was decided that their relationship be kept a secret. Naruto went into a negative spiral which ended up with him joining the Akatsuki. How will their destinies intertwine when one hunts the other?


**Just a quick note that this is a long chapter compared to my other stuff. If you want go for it in one read but I do suggest taking a break sometime and coming back to it. Whatever works for you.**

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A five year old Namikaze Naruto sat on the porch of the main house in the Uchiha compound. Beside him sat his friend Uchiha Itachi who was holding onto his three month old brother Uchiha Sasuke. The two of them watched the night sky in peace. However, Naruto was trying his hardest to sit still due to his excitement. Today was the day he was going to get a younger sibling. Around 9 months ago when he first found out that his mother was pregnant he had been excited. Even though he was only five, he had experienced the backlash of a war. His mother was Uzumaki Kushina who was a major player in the war due to her mastery of fuinjutsu. His father was Namikaze Minato who was feared as one of the strongest shinobi due to his unstoppable jutsu. That was until the former became pregnant with her second child and the latter was promoted to the Fourth Hokage. Since then Minato made rare appearances on the battlefield and took up the defence of the village instead. If any threat came too close to the village he would go out to greet them in a rather violent manner.

"Do you want to hold him?" Itachi asked as he prepared to pass Sasuke over to his friend. Naruto took Sasuke of Itachi's hands and smiled down at the baby. He and Itachi have been friends for their five years of life. Itachi's mother Mikoto has been friends with Kushina since their academy days so the two of them were practically raised together. Also, since both of their fathers were important figures in the village, Minato being the Hokage, and Itachi's father Fugaku being the leader of the Uchiha clan the two of them were trained from a young age and frequently trained with the other. The two of them were considered geniuses who have been learning the shinobi arts since they were two years old, although that title meant nothing to them. Both of them wished for the end of war. Even though they were young, war had forced them both to mature quickly.

"Having a nice sleep, Sasuke?" Naruto asked the sleeping baby as he slightly rocked the baby in his arms. "Soon you will have a new friend. Are you as excited as I am?"

"Don't wake him up." Itachi said as he lay back. If there was one person besides his parent who he could trust Sasuke with, Naruto would be that person. The three of them were alone in the Uchiha household. Mikoto and Fugaku had to meet with someone from outside the clan tonight for some business that had nothing to do with the children so they left them at home. The night continued on in peace. Naruto continued to feel bliss in the night where his family would increase by one. He had no idea how the night would end up.

A sudden shiver went down both Itachi and Naruto's backs. "What was that?" Naruto asked as he quickly passed Sasuke to his brother. It seemed like Sasuke also felt the shiver as he started to cry. The uneasy feeling had affected all three of them. Naruto quickly stood up. "Should I go see what it is?" Naruto asked his friend.

"Do what you want. I will stay here and look after Sasuke." Itachi understood what Naruto wanted to do. The two of them both had the similar dream of peace; however their ways of obtaining that peace was different. Itachi wished to avoid fights entirely, and only fight in the direst of situations. On the other hand, Naruto believed that fighting was necessary to bring peace and that the stronger one of the sides is, the quicker peace is obtained. This is why Naruto could not stay still after having that bad feeling. He needed to see what the feeling was.

"See you." Naruto said as he got ready to start running. However he didn't need to. A massive surge of chakra flowed over the three boys. It felt as though their entire system had been invaded, and those invaders quickly left. Naruto and Itachi looked towards the source of this chakra.

"What is that?" Itachi asked as he stood up with his brother in his arms. He was fighting the urge to run inside and leave his friend out. He swore he would protect his brother, but he wasn't going to leave Naruto. "Naruto, come inside."

"But… that…" Naruto stood open mouthed as he watched the source of the chakra. He knew what that giant orange fox with nine tails was. That was the Nine Tailed Fox. He had read about it in one of the Uzumaki's clan books, along with the legend of the Sage of the Six Paths. What was such a monstrous creature doing here in Konoha?

"Naruto. Let the adults handle this. Unless you think that Hokage-sama can't handle this." Itachi said in the closest thing to a mocking tone that he could push forth. He couldn't hide the fear that that monster could come here for his brother. But that was enough to break Naruto out of his trance. He had read about the strength of the kyuubi, but one monster could not defeat an entire village. Besides, Namikaze Minato does not go down that easily.

"Yeah, you're right. There is no way dad would lose to that." Naruto followed Itachi inside and they hid until Mikoto and Fugaku got home. By then the fox had disappeared without a trace.

X (The Next Day) X

Five people currently stood inside the Hokage's office. None of them chose to sit in the Hokage's seat since none of them were the current Hokage. In fact, there was no longer a current Hokage.

"People need to know that there is someone in charge." An elderly lady with her grey hair tied up in a twin bun spoke up. She was adorning a relatively formal grey kimono. UtataneKoharu was one of the members of the Konoha council. The other member of the council Mitokado Homura stood beside her. He had darker grey spikey hair and beard. Even since his shinobi days the man always had a frown on his face and a pair of glasses above it. He sported a green kimono and a cream hoari, as well as a long white cloth wrapped around his neck and shoulders like a loose scarf. The two of them advised the current Hokage about matters concerning the village and have been doing so since their teammate; Sarutobi Hiruzen became the Third Hokage. Hiruzen also stood in the room looking at the empty Hokage chair. Hiruzen wore the same outfit as Homura, but with a red kimono and white haori. He also had gray spiked hair and a goatee.

"Hiruzen. These matters need to be addressed now; the village won't last long without it." The last man was Shimura Danzo who wore a large hooded black trench coat. He had black spikey hair that was done up in a ponytail. Covering his right eye was a thick layer of bandages ensuring that it would never slip. This bandage was to cover up an injury that he obtained during the war. No medical ninjutsu could completely heal his eye, even though everything around it was healed. He also had a distinct 'x' scar on his chin. He was an old friend of the previous mentioned three. They were all in the battle that Danzo lost his eye. They also knew that his right arm was injured in that fight.

Hiruzen let out a sigh. "It is a shame. Are you sure you don't want to be the Fifth, Jiraiya?" Hiruzen looked to the last occupant in the room. The man, Jiraiya had a red haori and waist length white hair ponytail which also framed his face with two bangs. His eyes had two red stripes going down his face. He also wore a headband with the kanji for 'oil' on it. The rest of his outfit consisted of a mesh suit under a green short kimono and pants, as well as hand guards.

"I've told you before sensei. It's not my thing. Besides, Orochimaru wouldn't be too happy about that." Jiraiya had his back to the other occupants of the room. He didn't really like nor care about anyone else there except for his teacher Hiruzen. Jiraiya was in the next town over when he got a bad feeling, so he wasted no time to run back to Konoha to find out that it had been attacked.

For the twentieth time today Hiruzen sighed. He really didn't want to get into the politics the day after the death of many fine shinobi including his wife, but right now the village needed him. "I will retake the seat of Hokage." Everyone else in the room nodded. They all expected this meeting to end up with the Third Hokage back in charge. Danzo wasn't very happy about it, but now was not the time to do anything that could possibly harm the village further. Hiruzen was the best person to get the village safe again, and there was one way to do it.

"Hiruzen. You know what needs to be done." Danzo said as he bit back any complaints.

"Yes, you are right." Hiruzen walked to the window and stared at the village to see the clean-up crews begin their work. Hiruzen took a deep breath. "Danzo, I know Root still unofficially exists. I want you to disband it, but right now use your network to spread the rumours that the kyuubi was sealed inside the baby Uzumaki Rei."

"Sensei, won't the villagers hate the child for that. You'll ruin her childhood." Jiraiya spoke up in protest. "Also that child is a Namikaze."

"Not anymore. Danzo I also need you to forge papers to make Rei an orphan. We hide the fact that she is the child of the Fourth. He has too many enemies and for now we need the other villages to know that we still have a Jinchuriki."

"What about Naruto? Are you going to hide the fact that he has a little sister?" Jiraiya slammed his hand down on the Hokage desk. This made no sense to him, why would they do something like this to children.

"We don't have a choice." Hiruzen continued to look out the window. "As much as I want to tell those children everything and look after them myself, I have an obligation to protect everyone in this village. I want to protect everyone, and if this is what needs to be done then so be it."

"This is bullshit." Jiraiya stormed out of the room. He knew that his sensei wasn't wrong, but he didn't have to be happy about it.

"It is rare but we agree on this." Danzo said to his long-time friend and rival Hiruzen.

"I'm not finished. No one in this village is allowed to tell Uzumaki Rei about her family, and about the kyuubi inside of her." Danzo was about to speak up in disagreement but Homura beat him to it.

"I think that is acceptable. We should try to save her childhood as much as we can." Koharu nodded in agreement. Danzo held his tongue. There was no point in arguing against this, nothing would be gained. As much as he wanted to use the Jinchuriki as a weapon, now was not the time for arguments. "With that we will take our leave, we have to inform all of the clan heads of the Third's reinstatement." The two of them bowed and walked out of the room.

"I take my leave as well." Danzo turned away and begun to follow the council members.

"Wait." Hiruzen's tone changed from a remorseful one to a serious one.

"What is it Hiruzen? I need to start the rumours." Danzo turned back around to see Hiruzen directly in his face, and he looked pissed.

"Kushina's pregnancy was top secret, and the location of her birth was an even bigger secret. I went to the site and found all of the ANBU dead outside. I went inside to see Biwako and Taji dead. It was not a fox that killed them." With that Danzo's eyes widened. Was Hiruzen saying that the kyuubi attack was not an accidental slip of Kushina's seal? "They were a team of ANBU and my wife, and they were killed by humans, not a monster. If I find out that you had anything to do with this, don't think that your little Root system will save you from my wrath." Danzo instinctively took a step back. With that he remembered that the God of Shinobi was not a title given to him on a whim. He had inherited it from its previous two holders. Danzo instantly regained his composure.

"I assure you that I had nothing to do with it. Kushina's blood was perfect for taming the beast; she was keeping the other villages at bay without doing anything. If anything, I want to find the person or people who freed the fox and kill them myself." Once again Danzo turned around and begun to walk out. "I will ensure that everything that you have said becomes well known. I will leave dealing with Naruto to you." And with that Danzo walked out leaving Hiruzen alone with his thoughts.

XXX

The young Naruto sat on top of the Fourth Hokage's head carved out of stone. The sun had just started to set but it didn't concern Naruto. He was watching the village pull together and finish the clean-up for the day. Many homes were destroyed, and many lives were lost, but as a result the entire village could bind together. There was a sense of unity between the villagers and shinobi that was absent for a long time. It was built upon death, but will hold strong at least until the village is rebuilt.

Naruto took a deep breath as the sun was now almost completely below the horizon. He had heard the news quickly spread around the village. The Nine Tailed Demon Fox suddenly attacked the village and fought against the strong shinobi of Konoha. Konoha was struggling to keep the fox at bay until the Fourth appeared and teleported the fox away from the village. Unable to defeat the fox, he sealed it inside of a young girl who happened to be nearby. The child's name was Uzumaki Rei, and she was a newborn orphan who was about to be dropped off at the nearby Konoha Orphanage, but was almost killed by the fox. The Fourth saved the child and used it as the host for the fox. Giving up his life to seal away the fox, the Fourth Hokage died a hero.

But Naruto doubted this story. He knew something that most people didn't, and that was his mother was pregnant. He may be young, but he is not completely stupid. This Uzumaki Rei must be his little sister who he was eagerly awaiting to be born, and that his father used a forbidden sealing technique that he accidently learned about when he was reading the up on seals in the Uzumaki clan house, the Shiki Fuin (Reaper Death Seal). But then why did he seal some of the kyuubi inside of himself, and the rest inside his daughter. He really needed someone to explain to him what his father was thinking. Why would he waste his life if he was going to seal the monster inside the child? Naruto knew there was someone who could answer his questions, but he knew that person would be busy, so he waited patiently atop his father's head all day for that person to arrive. A man suddenly used Shunshin (Body Flicker) to appear behind Naruto.

"Show off…" Naruto grumbled as the man sat down. The tall man wore a simple white kimono with a purple lining. Underneath his kimono was a visible mesh shirt. His skin was a pale white and a distinct purple shadow surrounded his eye. "Just because I can't do that yet, Orochimaru-san."

"Kuku. You'll learn how to do that soon enough. I figured I would find you here." Orochimaru smiled as he also looked out into the horizon which had lost its sun. Orochimaru was one of the many high ranking shinobi who took an interest in Naruto. Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son which made the Third Hokage Hiruzen interact with Naruto often. The Fourth Hokage was a student to one of the legendary Sanin Jiraiya who was also Naruto's godfather. Naruto also heard that another of the Sanin Tsunade use to cradle him as a baby before she left the village. Having so many high levelled shinobi around him, Naruto quickly grew an interest in ninjutsu and Orochimaru, the last of the Sanin decided to flourish this interest by teaching him some ninjutsu theory of a more forbidden nature.

"How was your mission? You went with Jiraiya-ojisan right." Naruto feigned curiosity to be polite, but Orochimaru wasn't that stupid to not notice.

"How much did you cry?" Orochimaru bluntly asked. A foot smashed him in the back of Orochimaru's head. The man's neck bent slightly, but aside from that he didn't move.

"YOU DON'T GO ASKING PEOPLE THAT!" The owner of the foot was a young girl around twelve years old. She had dark spikey purple hair that was tied into an upward spiked ponytail. She wore a reddish-purple shirt and khaki shorts, along with mesh stockings that stopped just before her shorts. Around her neck sat a small pendant with a snake emblem.

"It was a serious question Anko. It is normal for people to cry at the death of their loved ones." A quick flash of nostalgia appeared in Orochimaru's eyes as he spoke to his only apprentice. However that soon disappeared as he spoke again. "The pain of losing someone is harsh and it is a feeling that we all know too well as shinobi. As a member of a shinobi family it isn't unexpected for our family to drop dead any instant. It is the sadness we feel after that allows us to get stronger."

Anko pouted and looked away. "You still shouldn't ask."

"It's fine Anko." Naruto said without turning around. "I don't mind."

Anko kicked Naruto in the back of the head. "You forgot the 'san' again." Naruto would have slipped off of the stone head if Anko hadn't used chakra to stick her foot to Naruto's head. Naruto was now dangling off of the edge only being held up a foot.

"Not funny Anko." Naruto reached his hands out and used his chakra to stick to the stone. He had to learn the tree walking exercise before he was taught anything about sealing from his mother since chakra control is a key part of fuinjutsu.

"Anko you shouldn't pick on children. They will never forget it and when they grow up you might regret it." Orochimaru reached down and pulled up the child. "So, Naruto, what is your answer?"

Naruto paused for a second "I didn't." Naruto could tell that his answer surprised Orochimaru and Anko, so he continued. "I think it's just that I can't believe it. Both of my parents are gone. It just doesn't… feel… real…" Naruto trailed off.

"Aaah…" Orochimaru understood. "You have a maturity that it long past your age, so I find it hard to remember that you are just a kid sometimes. The shinobi world has forced you to mature quickly. Listen Naruto. The fact is that your parents are dead and nothing can change that. Human life is a fragile thing and it is also a very sad thing. The fact that you can't shed a tear means that you are still in disbelief. Only time will help you realise that this world is in fact real, and everything that has happened cannot be changed."

"If you say so…" Naruto just continued to look out in the dark night. Naruto decided to address the topic that was on his mind. "I have a question. The rumours. How true are they?"

Orochimaru sighed. "Unfortunately, all of it. The monster is sealed inside an orphan. But I do have to say that those bijuu are interesting."

"I mean about the orphan. Uzumaki Rei."

"Oh… Is she related to you?" Orochimaru nonchalantly asked. "Actually I don't think I have seen your mother in a while. I think about seven months or so." Suddenly Orochimaru realised what Naruto was talking about, but unfortunately that gave Naruto the answer he needed. "Your mother was pregnant wasn't she?" Anko's eyes widened. She hadn't heard that the Fourth's wife was pregnant again. "They kept it a secret so she couldn't be used against the Fourth."

"Orochimaru-sensei, are you sure that the rumours are true?" Anko hopefully asked her teacher, but was met with a shake of his head.

"I heard from a reliable source that those rumours are true. I don't know what happened with your mother but Uzumaki Rei is not her child." Orochimaru realised that this child has lost not only his parents, but he also lost a sibling, and they were all the family he had. "I would go and ask Sarutobi-sensei about what happened with your mother's child."

"There is no need." The Third had walked up behind the three of them. "I'm sorry I couldn't come see you earlier Naruto."

"Jiijii." Naruto looked back at Hiruzen who was wearing his Hokage outfit. "I'm guessing your back as the Third."

"Yes I am." Orochimaru's eyes narrowed at this. He thought he would be the perfect candidate to become the Fifth, but it seems that his teacher didn't want that. "About your parents, the child was in fact born." Naruto started to smile.

"But…"Orochimaru could see that his teacher was struggling to say something. He wasn't happy about not being promoted, but now was not the time to address that.

"But your younger brother was killed by the fox." Hiruzen was internally kicking himself for saying what he did, but he had no choice. Naruto's face had barely managed a smile, but now it just changed to a mortified expression. He had lost everything now. He was young, so his family was everything to him. "Wha… What am I supposed to do now?"

"You live for your family." Orochimaru was the first to speak. "You live an extra special life for your families share as well." With that Orochimaru stood up. "As long as I am in the village, I will always be an ear for you to speak to. Sensei, I would like to speak with you." Bidding their goodbye's to Naruto, Orochimaru and Hiruzen walked away leaving Anko and Naruto atop the now deceased Fourths head. The two of them sat in silence. After a good ten minutes Anko spoke up.

"If you want you can stay with me tonight." Anko said. "I mean, if you don't want to go home…" Anko never had a little brother, but she would say that Naruto would be the closest thing to it.

"Thank you Anko. My house was destroyed by the fox, so I actually have no place to go." The house that he and his parents lived in was on the outskirts of the village and not too far from Konoha Orphanage, but now it was nothing but a pile of rubble. Naruto considered going to the Orphanage for a place to stay, but they would probably be full, especially after the fox destroyed so many homes and lives. The Third would do what he can for the orphans, but his attention was spread. Naruto couldn't refuse an offer such as this.

"Comeon. Let's go. It's late." Anko picked up Naruto from the back of his shirt and flung him over her shoulder.

"Hey I can walk."

"But you are still a baby. Everyone knows babies need to be looked after."

X (Two years later) X

Naruto sat beside his friend Itachi. Naruto wore an orange jacket with the Uzumaki clan symbol on it as well as matching orange pants. His hair remained its short length. Itachi was wearing a high collared black shirt and blue pants. His hair had gotten longer since but still didn't touch his collar. Both of them wore their forehead protector around their forehead. The two of them were currently in one of the Academies rooms. There were rows behind rows of seats filled with Academy Graduates. The seats were meant to hold three people; however no one sat with Naruto and Itachi. Both of them had graduated from the academy in one year, and were only seven years old even though the median age in the room was 12. Itachi graduated at the top of the class with Naruto close behind so they weren't very liked by the rest of the graduates. However, they really didn't care. If people were going to be jealous then let them be jealous. But they were not the only two who sat alone. A girl from another class sat on the opposite side of the room with a gap between her and anyone else. This girl had brown hair which was tied back in a ponytail that reached the base of her neck. She wore a black shirt covered by a dark purple jacket. Her neck was covered by a white scarf which seemed to be too long for her as it rested on her seat while she sat. She also wore tight black pants with seemingly light shoes. Her forehead protector was made a little bit larger and acted as a belt. Naruto was sure that he had met this girl before but he couldn't place where.

"Quiet down everyone…" A rather unenthusiastic chuunin walked into the room. Naruto and Itachi knew this person as a teacher at this Academy, but they personally never had him teach them. "Okay… Time to meet your jounin." It appeared that the man didn't care about the Graduates. He probably didn't care about anything. "Okay. Ishimaru Kyousuke, Konno Taiki, Shiroyama Yuma. You are Team Takumi and your jounin is Horikita Takumi." One of the jounin out the front of the room waved and the three mentioned names got up and followed him out of the room. "Next… Namikaze Naruto, Uchiha Itachi, Nekonome Setsuna. You are Team Kimura, and your jounin is Kimura Hotaru." The two friends smiled when they found out that they were on the same team. They looked to see where their jounin was, but saw that the door had already closed. Their jounin had already left.

"Wha…" Naruto started to speak but was quickly dragged by Itachi out the door. They were soon followed by the girl that Naruto was looking at earlier.

"Nice to meet you. I am Nekonome Setsuna." She was running just behind Itachi and beside Naruto. They didn't know why their jounin left so quickly, but they had to find her.

"Nice to meet you too. I am Uchiha Itachi." Itachi didn't bother turning around, but rather picked up the pace. They had made it to outside the building in an attempt to follow the jounin's trail.

"Namikaze Naruto. Have we met before?" Naruto was certain that they had met but he just couldn't place where.

"Save it for later Naruto-san. We have to catch up." Setsuna spoke with a smile. And with that she picked up her pace. She jumped ahead of Itachi and Naruto and started to lead the way. After around five minutes of running the three of them arrived at a clearing, in the centre was the women who they were chasing. She looked to be in her teenage years. Her well-endowed chest was covered by the standard Konoha jounin attire of dark blue pants and shirt with a green flak jacket on top of it. Her skin was incredibly pale. She had light grey short hair that barely reached the collar of her flak jacket. He also wore silver lipstick and a thick layer of mascara.

"I have been here for less than a minute. I am impressed." The jounin named Kimura Hotaru smiled at her new team. "But it is a shame. I really don't want to babysit you brats. I am not surprised that you all graduated at the age of seven since I was younger when I graduated, although that was wartime so they graduated us easier. You guys are lucky that the war is over. But in all honesty, I do not want to take a group of genin at my age. I mean I am sixteen years old, why the hell would I want a group of brats?"

"But they made us a team, didn't they?" Setsuna was the first to address their jounin who they would be going on missions with until they were chuunin, or so they thought.

"Oh that's right. They don't tell you that… Okay sit down brats. Here is the thing." The three graduates listened as they sat down on the grass. "Not all the graduates become genin. I can decide whether to pass the three of you, or take a single apprentice on, heck I can also fail you to send you back to the Academy for another year. But I am not unfair, I will give you a test and if you pass I will let you stay as my genin." The three graduates understood exactly what she was saying.

"So there is one final procedure before we become genin." Itachi said as he stood back up. "Will this be taking place today?"

"Yes actually, it will take place now. If you pass I will learn your names, but until then I don't know any of you."

"Sounds fair." Naruto and Setsuna stood up as well. The three of them stood patiently waiting for Hotaru to explain to them the details of the test.

"Okay here is the test. It is a simple game of tag. All three of you have to touch me to pass. I will not be holding back either. The time limit is until the sun goes down." Naruto looked up to see that the sun was still on the rise. For their hopefully soon to be jounin to place such a large time limit, she must be confident in her skill. "Good luck. Although I don't really mean it." And with that Setsuna leaped forward and grabbed Hotaru's flak jacket. However as soon as she touched it Hotaru turned into a silvery-white liquid that fell to the ground and seeped into the earth.

"No way." Naruto said in shock. The three of them were surprised but Naruto's reaction was a little over the top. Itachi and Setsuna gave him a questioning look. "If I am right, she might be a very high level shinobi. I think she is known as Mercury's Wings who guides people to the afterlife. During the Third War she single handedly killed fifty Kumogakure shinobi who were trying to sneak into the Land of Fire to launch an attack on the Daimyo. She was given a medal by the Daimyo himself for essentially saving his life. I think we are in serious trouble, if she doesn't want us to touch her then we won't be able to touch her."

"How do you know all that?" Hotaru suddenly appeared behind Naruto. Setsuna once again jumped forward faster than last time in order to catch her, but Itachi jumped in the way.

"It's another clone." Itachi said before he started to walk back to the village streets.

"I have a few older friends." Naruto said before he followed Itachi. Setsuna reluctantly followed. The clone also turned into that previous liquid.

The three graduates found the closest traditional Japanese café and ordered some tea. The tea arrived and the three of them sat there drinking in peace.

"What is going on? Shouldn't we be trying to find her?" Setsuna couldn't help but get confused with what was happening. She just followed the mood and it landed her drinking tea with her hopefully soon to be teammates.

"I agree with Setsuna-chan on this one. I know how much you like these places but I don't think now is the time." Naruto just looked at his friend confused. He knew that Itachi doesn't do things on a whim, but he might be too relaxed as he is now.

"I believe now is the best time to be here. We have all day to find her and I believe we should spend the first hour getting to know each other so we can work better together as a team. This should improve our teamwork and help us make a plan to catch her." Naruto and Setsuna couldn't dispute his logic, even though they were pressed for time. "Okay, I will talk first. As you know I am Uchiha Itachi. I am the son of the leader of the Uchiha clan. I am a pacifist by nature but I will do what is required of me even if it includes going against my nature. I have a younger brother named Sasuke who I care for deeply and want to protect. What I want to accomplish as a shinobi is to do everything I can to protect the village."

"Okay I am next. I have already said my name is Namikaze Naruto. My father was the Fourth Hokage, and now both of my parents are dead. I currently live with a sadistic woman who is trying to be an older sister to me; she would probably have succeeded if she stopped intentionally causing me pain for her own enjoyment. Wait isn't that what older sisters do?" Naruto brushed off the thought and continued. "What I want to accomplish as a shinobi… I don't actually know anymore. Before I had the same thoughts as Itachi. I wanted to protect the village, but when my parents died I realised that was wrong, I wanted to protect the people in it who were important to me. But right now all I do is live day by day. I am sure that someday I will find a reason to live, but until that day I will become as strong as possible in order to fulfil whatever that is."

"My turn. My name is Nekonome Setsuna. I have no human family at all. You see, I was raised by a glaring of ninneko (ninja cats)." With that Naruto and Itachi's eyes widened in surprise, but they decided to let her finish. "I don't know who my human parents were, but for as long as I can remember I was raised by cats. It was two years ago when Tsunade-sama found me and told me about living in Konoha. The ninneko decided it was time for me to live among my own. So I came to this village and found a home in Konoha Orphanage where I lived for a year and a half and here we are now. My goal as a shinobi is to become even stronger than Tsunade-sama to make her proud for finding me."

"So you were raised by cats. That explains your name." Nekonome means 'Cat's eye'. Naruto pointed out. "Wait I met you at the Orphanage then, when I went to check up on Rei that time." Naruto had been told by the people he trusted the most that Rei was not related to him in any way, but she was still the only other Uzumaki in the village. He couldn't just leave her alone. He personally found it hard to be around her due to her resemblance of his mother, but he couldn't just forsake her. The village hates her for the fox inside of her, and Naruto was one of the few who was smart enough to know that she is just a container, so he felt that it was on obligation to help her live.

"Yeah. That girl is still young and shy but she is growing well. I don't know why they treat her the way they do." With that Itachi and Naruto shared a look, but quickly hid it so Setsuna didn't notice. She wasn't here for the fox attack, and it was illegal to tell her. The three of them continued to chat about menial things for a while.

XXX

Sometime during their conversation Setsuna placed her head down and fell asleep. This confused Naruto slightly.

"Wasn't she the most eager to chase Hotaru-sensei?" Naruto started to pat the sleeping girls head. A soft sound left her lips. "Did she just purr?"

"I guess she really is a cat. I wonder if Nekobaa knows her…" Itachi commented as he thought.

"Who?" Naruto asked before he suddenly shuddered. "Um… Hotaru-sensei just killed my shadow clone."

"Was it the real Hoatru-sensei?" Itachi asked. This was his plan, to send a clone out to gather information about Hotaru from her peers who Naruto had a few contacts among. Being the Fourth's son had quite a few perks.

"Yeah it was. I got it to ask Kakashi-san about her though. Supposedly she likes to hang around at Ichiraku's Ramen. My mum had taken me there once before. It was on the way back so my clone popped by and there Hotaru-sensei was eating. My clone thought he had a chance, she wasn't very happy that her meal was interrupted." Naruto clutched his stomach where his clone apparently died.

"So let's go. She won't be there for long." Itachi flicked Setsuna on her forehead.

"Hssssstt." Setsuna woke up and arched her back as she bared her teeth at Itachi. It took her a whole two seconds to realise what she did and turn red with embarrassment.

"You really are a cat." Naruto commented as he pulled out money to pay the bill. The Fourth left behind a fair bit of money in his account which rightfully became his. "Let's go. We know where Hotaru-sensei is." With that Setsuna's eyes lit up and she quickly followed Naruto out of the café. The three of them ran through the bustling streets. The time was just past one so the streets were filled with people looking for a place to eat. After a few minutes Naruto led the trio to a little stand with the words 'Ichiraku Ramen' at the front. The little corner shack had two occupants, however neither of them were the jounin that they were looking for.

"Welcome. Would you like to take a seat?" A single man stood behind the bench. His eyes were practically closed, and his cheeks were nice and defined. He wore a nice warm smile to welcome the potential customers. He adorned a loose neck white kimono with a blue apron, as well as a chef's hat. There was not a single stain on the man's white outfit to show off his professionalism.

"Not today. I apologise but we are in a bit of a hurry." Itachi calmly spoke.

"Argh it's you." The man pointed at Naruto. "You were the one who jumped into the stall to attack Hotaru-chan. You three must be the graduates that she mentioned." Naruto and Setsuna nodded.

"Do you know which way she went?" Itachi narrowed his eyes a bit, from what he could gather Hotaru came to Ichiraku's often enough to be on name basis with the owner. This means that out of the four of them this owner is the person who knows the most about her. "We need to find her so we can become genin." Hopefully this could get him to feel sympathy for the children who want to become shinobi. The owner appears to have been in Konoha for a while so he would know all about the shinobi system.

"Actually I do. She always goes to a certain memorial site. I don't know exactly which one though. You might want to ask someone else about that." The man sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

"Thanks for your help." Itachi said before he turned to leave. Setsuna and Naruto quickly followed.

"Aaaah wait." The owner suddenly stopped the trio. They all turned back to see what he had to say. "I have a favour to ask. Please pass this test and become her genin. I think Hotaru-chan needs some kind of stability in her life. I don't think anyone should have to suffer the way she has." The three of them nodded before they turned to walk out.

Naruto suddenly stopped and spoke with his back turned. "We planned on that anyway. There is no need to worry Teuchi-ojisan." That surprised the old man. "I never forget a ramen place. I came by here three years ago with my mother. I will have to come by later as well. See ya." Naruto waved as he quickly ran to catch up with his teammates.

"Naruto we need to ask someone…" Itachi started. It seems that they all silently agreed to make Itachi the team's leader.

"Yea I know. But I don't know where Kakashi went. I think we'll have more luck walking aimlessly." Naruto thought for a bit. Who else did he know that could help them? "Wait I know." Naruto quickly made a shadow clone and it knew where to go, however Naruto fell to one knee doing that.

Setsuna quickly pulled Naruto's arm around her neck allowing him to place his weight on her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I am fine. Just a little chakra exhaustion. I suck at these shadow clones." Naruto gracefully accepted Setsuna's help as they slowed down but continued to walk around aimlessly.

"Wouldn't your clone be just as tired?" Itachi curiously asked. He knew the theory behind the clone, but hadn't seen his friend use it often. Also why couldn't they just all go to wherever the clone was going?

"Normally yeah, but I learnt a trick for it. The clones share the same chakra, but if I constantly slow my own chakra absorption, the clone will have more chakra but temporarily. Soon enough, that clone will burst. Orochimaru-san taught me that…" Naruto trailed off as bad memories thoughts started to arise. But he had no time to ponder that. The other clone burst giving the original Naruto his memories as well as his chakra back. Naruto stopped using Setsuna as a crutch and stood on his own. "I know where Hotaru-sensei is."

XXX

Kimura Hotaru sat cross legged with her back against the memorial stone. For her today was mostly a normal one, if you exclude the fact that she stood in an Academy classroom for the first time in years, and the fact that she was currently being chased down by a group of graduates who wanted to become genin.

"I don't want these kids. I can't be a teacher to them. It wouldn't be fair, what was Hokage-sama thinking giving them to me? I haven't found a reason to fail them yet though. They were quick to catch up to me, and they found me at Ichiraku's. I didn't expect that. Maybe I should have listened to their names. I have no reason to fail them. But I'm not good enough to look after them. What would you do if you were me, sensei?" Hotaru asked a question that was swallowed by the wind. It felt like she had been sitting there for about an hour. Did the kids stop chasing her? Or could they just not find her? A single leaf flowed down off of the nearest tree and swayed in front of Hotaru's eyes. Hotaru lifted her hands and caught the leaf. It was about time she got up, she couldn't sit there forever.

Hotaru stood up and stretched. She turned around to get one last look at the monument. What she saw surprised her. Fifty meters away from the monument sat the three graduates who she had been running from. Although sitting wasn't the right word. Setsuna lay on her side while Naruto rested on his back. Itachi was the only one who was sitting properly. They let off no type of intent which made them impossible to sense.

"She's done." Itachi said as he stood up. Naruto and Setsuna quickly jumped up as well.

"How long have you been waiting here?" Hotaru asked.

"A little more than half an hour." Setsuna yawned and stretched. She was preparing for what was to come.

"Your body clock is surprisingly accurate." Naruto commented.

"Don't underestimate cats."

"It wasn't the cats I was underestimating." This earned Naruto a hiss from his hopefully soon to be teammate, and now probably good friend for life.

"So what now Hotaru-sensei? We waited for you to finish because we didn't think you were going to run away after." Itachi calmly said ignoring the other two.

"I did say you needed to touch me. I don't think it's worth running anymore either." Hotaru shrugged as she started to walk a few meters away from the memorial where an open training field stood. "I hope you guys are ready, I still don't want any genin so don't expect this to be easy."

"So we get to fight against Mercury's Wings." Naruto cracked his knuckles. "This should be fun." Without missing a beat, Setsuna charged straight towards Hotaru who made a few seals with lightning fast speed and lifted both of her hands. Setsuna was met by a liquid wall that sprouted out of the ground. "DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Naruto yelled out a warning to Setsuna who planned on charging through the liquid. She barely managed to stop before barrelling into the now hardened metal.

"What is this?" Setsuna asked as she touched the hardened surface that she almost ran into.

"It's mercury. It's a liquid metal; Hotaru-sensei can make the mercury solid at any time she wants." Naruto said as he eyed the wall. Setsuna jumped up and landed on top of the metal. As soon as she did that the mercury turned back to its liquid state and fell to the ground. As soon as Setsuna touched the ground the metal hardened again trapping her feet.

"You shouldn't charge straight at her without understanding her ability." Itachi commented as he pulled out a kunai and threw it at the hardened mercury at Setsuna's feet. The kunai bounced off leaving no mark. "That thing is hard."

"Did you really think normal metal can break my metal? I thought you were supposed to be the smart one." Hotaru commented as she made a few more hand seals.

"Just gathering information." Itachi said as he ran towards Setsuna with Naruto in tow. The two of them got close enough to grab Setsuna, but a wave of the metal appeared in front of them. Naruto pulled out a kunai for each hand and dug them into the ground. Itachi and Naruto made a few hand seals each.

"Katon: Great Fireball Jutsu." Itachi breathed out a massive fireball to meet the wave head on. Naruto grabbed both of the kunai that were dug into the ground and suddenly swapped places with Setsuna. Naruto's kunai were now stuck in the metal while both Setsuna and Naruto were free. The three of them quickly jumped backwards as the wave broke through the flame.

"Thanks." Setsuna said as the wave crashed into the ground. The three of them were safe.

"Why did you charge straight in like that?" Naruto was panting hard. He had used a lot of chakra today, and he had very little left. He wasn't some kind of chakra monster who could continuously spam jutsu.

"I'm sorry. I got a little too excited."

"It's fine." Itachi coolly said as he eyed Hotaru. "Kittens are normally easily excitable." No further words could be exchanged as Hotaru started to make more hand signs. She placed both of her hands on the ground.

"Doton: Silverfall Jutsu." A large cliff rose up behind Hotaru protecting her back from any assault. From the top of the cliff the liquid metal started to fall to create a waterfall which parts perfectly around Hotaru. "Let's see how you can get through this. Come." As soon as she said this she lifted both of her arms and she waved them around in a fluid manner. Her arms and hands were very calm and elegant in the way they moved, but there was no time to admire this as the waterfall around her started to have new streams branch off of it. The streams surrounded Hotaru and appeared to move according to Hotaru's movements.

"MOVE NOW!" Naruto screamed as Hotaru pushed out her palm to send the first of many high pressure torrents of the liquid in the trio's direction. Thanks to Naruto's warning the three of them safely avoided the mercury. Hotaru continued to palm the air sending continuous torrents at the three. Setsuna continued to dance the torrents with minimal movement. Not a single one hit her at all even though she was barely moving. Itachi continued to back off until he was at a distance that could be considered safe. He was out of Hotaru's range. Naruto continued to run around in no real direction in an attempt to dodge the attacks before they were sent. He noticed that they could only fly straight so unless Hotaru could predict his random movements, there was no way she would hit him.

"Naruto. Do you have anything that could work?" Itachi asked as he carefully watched Hotaru's movements. He was trying to learn as much as he could about this technique. He also noticed that they could only fly straight, and he now also knows its max range. He could also tell that the speed they flew at wasn't completely unmanageable for the graduates. She was definitely holding back. Itachi had to use this opportunity to find a weakness.

"I have a few things, but I don't have the chakra to use it. I seriously need to work on my capacity." Naruto had been learning techniques from Jiraiya, Hiruzen, Orochimaru, Kakashi, and before they died, his parents, so he had a rather large number of techniques up his sleeve that he knew the theory for, but a lot of them involved a large amount of chakra which he currently didn't have. There were also a few that he hasn't mastered yet, but all he needed was time for those.

"Setsuna-san what about you?"

"Huh?" The girl was suddenly snapped back into reality, she was having too much fun dancing around the torrents liquid. "Oh right we're fighting." Setsuna continued to dance, but as she did she slowly moved towards Hotaru.

"She is a serious airhead." Naruto commented as he narrowly avoided another torrent.

"I have a plan." Itachi confidently said as he pulled out two smoke bombs from his pouch. Being in a clan had its perks. He would always have the shinobi tools for any occasion. "Naruto use these." Itachi threw them at his friend who caught them. As soon as he saw them he understood. Itachi needed her vision blocked, and if she can't see then she doesn't know where to send her attacks. Itachi jumped back into Hotaru's range and ran around like Naruto. Setsuna must have incredibly keen senses to be able to dodge these, even if Hotaru was holding back. Naruto quickly tied the smoke bombs to the end of a kunai.

"Almost there." Setsuna said as she got closer and closer to Hotaru. She was now at a point where she was dodging the torrents before they were completely formed. Cat senses are the best. Hotaru was forced to focus a little more attention on Setsuna, which gave Naruto the opening he needed to get close enough to through the smoke bombs.

"Got it." Naruto prematurely celebrated at the kunai flew towards Hotaru's feet.

"Not quite." As soon as the kunai hit the floor it was assaulted by the liquid metal which completely encased it. "Is that all?" Hotaru chuckled at Naruto's displeasure. He had one job and failed it, and because of that they might fail. Hotaru was forced to duck as Setsuna dived forward. The smoke bombs gave her a big enough opening to attack. The waterfall stopped falling to the ground and started wrapping around Setsuna. The metal flung the cat girl away from Hotaru on command.

"Urgh." Setsuna hit the ground hard and was quickly attacked by another torrent which wrapped around her arms holding them to her body. She jumped up to avoid the next torrent, but she could no longer use her arms.

"Incomplete Rasengan." Hotaru's attention was solely on Setsuna so she missed Naruto form a spherical ball of chakra in his right hand. Naruto dived forwards and slammed it on the ground around Hotaru. The spiral ball dissipated but dug into the ground with a spiral pattern. The dust of the attack was enough to block Hotaru's vision for a couple of seconds, however Naruto collapsed as a result. That move uses up a lot of chakra and Naruto had now exhausted all of his chakra. However in that brief two seconds, Itachi managed to pull out a bolas (string with weights on both ends) and launch it at the temporarily blind Hotaru. The bolas wrapped around her temporarily binding her arms which forced any of the prepared torrents to drop to the ground and the waterfall dropped down completely with no break in it.

"This isn't going to hold me." Hotaru said as she quickly forced the bolas off her. The bolas isn't meant to trap people, it's meant to trip them when they are running away. With her arms now free Hotaru once again parted the waterfall to see Setsuna charge straight towards her. "Is that all?" Hotaru asked as she jumped up the cliff and stood on the side. Setsuna tried to run up the cliff but was unable to since she didn't know the tree walking exercise. Itachi looked disappointed at the failure of his plan. "Is that all you have? It looks like that's not enough."

"That's enough bullying the kiddies." A new voice appeared at the top of cliff. The cliff started to fall back into the ground which forced Hotaru to jump off of it. The waterfall stopped flowing but the mercury stayed. A man walked up wearing the standard ANBU outfit of a blue outfit with a grey flak jacket and armguards. He carried a sword on his back and the standard ANBU tattoo on his left shoulder. He had grey spikey hair that pointed to his left. His mask look like a dog mask and was held on the left side of his head. His left eye had a scar running down it and was closed. Those that knew of him knew that his left eye was a Sharingan.

"Kakashi-san." Naruto struggled to speak as he attempted to pick himself up off of the ground.

"What do you want Kakashi? This is my test." Hotaru said with a rather annoyed expression on her face. It was obvious that these two are friends.

"Oh I was just pondering the mysteries of life and got a little lost then I arrived here to see you bullying a group of kids. And I thought. Oh is Hotaru-chan finally picking on someone at her skill level?"

"I will gut you like a fish." Maybe friend was a little too hopeful.

"Who has fish?" Arms still bound, Setsuna looked around excitedly.

"It's clear that you won the fight so what are you going to do now." Kakashi nonchalantly asked. "I mean this is a very interesting group. You don't know their names do you?"

"Hey there's no fish." Setsuna slumped down in disappointment.

"Why would I learn their names? It's not important yet. If I don't take them on, I don't need to know." Hotaru said in a matter-of-factly tone.

"You don't know it because you have a goldfish memory. You forgot it already." Hotaru turned a little red while Setsuna jumped up again at the mention of another fish.

"It's none of your business Kakashi. Go away." Hotaru turned back to the trio. She made a seal and dropped all of the mercury which sunk into the ground. "You three go home. Come by here tomorrow at nine. I will give you my answer then." She sighed when she realised they hadn't left. "GO!" The three graduates walked away together. "So what are you doing here Kakashi?"

"I told you I was…"

"Oh bullshit. What do you want?"

Kakashi's face dropped slightly to show that he was about to talk seriously. "I heard that you were given some students. I just came to see."

"Why would you do that? What I do is none of your business." Hotaru started to walk towards the memorial that was a fair distance away now. She didn't want to accidently damage it so she moved the fight away. Kakashi followed her.

"It isn't my business, but I am worried about you. I don't want you to do something you might regret."

"Regret taking those kids? Don't worry I didn't plan on taking them." Hotaru looked down at the memorial with a deep saddened showing on her face. Kakashi looked away since it would be rude to look at someone while they are at their weakest.

"No. That's not it. I don't want you to regret not taking them, because I know you want to." This surprised Hotaru, but she didn't let it show. "When Minato-sensei and I found you three on that battlefield, we understood straight away that you wouldn't just get over it. But you haven't made any attempt to get better."

"You have no right to lecture me about this. You shoved a technique that you created through the chest of the girl who liked you and you refuse to talk about it. We are both in the same boat for this." Hotaru regret what she said, but she couldn't take it back.

"Yet you have been offered a way off this sinking ship. Why don't you take it? Those brats will help you. If I were in your position I would have taken them on, I didn't see their test but their reputation precedes them." Kakashi looked at Hotaru again who was clearly uncomfortable. "Their names are Uchiha Itachi the prodigy of the Uchiha clan, Nekonome Setsuna the girl raised by ninneko, and Namikaze Naruto the son of the Fouth Hokage. I've taught Naruto a few things myself so I know that he will be strong. I think you should take them on."

"Heh. That's coming from the person who didn't have to test any graduates."

"Hokage-sama has asked me to start taking on graduated next year and I have the perfect test to do it. You aren't alone in this world Hotaru. I hope these kids will prove that to you. See ya." Kakashi turned his back to Hotaru and waved as he started to walk back towards the village. Hotaru sat down with her back to the memorial stone again as she pulled her knees in close.

"What should I do sensei?"

XXX

"I'm home." Naruto entered the apartment that he shared with a friend with a courteous tone of voice. He hoped that it would somehow lighten his roommate's mood, unfortunately he was wrong. A kunai came flying towards Naruto which caused a trickle of blood to fall down Naruto's cheek. "God dammit Anko stop doing that."

"You shouldn't send a clone to visit your beautiful roommate. You're lucky I didn't pop him straight away." The purple haired kunoichi walked into the entry hall wearing nothing but a shirt.

"Thanks for telling me where she would be. Also clothes. You should wear them. I hear they're fun." Naruto dryly said as he took his shoes off and started walking to his room. Their place wasn't much but it had two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom so it was enough. Naruto enjoyed the close proximity of everything especially considering how rarely they were at home. Although Anko could be a better roommate.

"Meh. Those things are uncomfortable. Who even wears that stuff at home? It's weird." The two of them have been living together since the kyuubi attack two years ago. Anko offered him a place to stay for a while but they never bothered discussing when he would leave, so he stayed. "So Hotaru is your jounin. I'm surprised they gave her a group of kids."

"She's doesn't go out of her way to cause pain so she's better than you." Naruto said just before he closed his door which became riddled with kunai. He opened the door again after taking his jacket off. "Where do you keep all those kunai anyway?" Naruto walked towards the kitchen where Anko lay on the floor.

"Women's secret." Anko winked at the boy causing him to shudder.

"She isn't my jounin yet. I'll found out tomorrow if she will accept us or not."

"She'll accept you. Unless your team fucked up bad somehow."

"How are you holding up?" Naruto asked as he started to rummage through the cupboards for food. What Naruto was referring to was obvious. Only a month ago Anko's mentor defected from the village. He had been running a large number of secret experiments under the streets of Konoha, and during his final days made Anko one of those experiments.

"I'm doing alright considering that hickey of death has been sealed." Anko rubber her neck as if it were in pain. Anko was bitten in the neck by Orochimaru causing a mark to appear. It took Anko a week of fighting for her life to recover, but by that time Orochimaru had been chased out of the village. The next week Anko had been on a bloodthirsty rage and was constantly looking for something to fight and kill. Thankfully Kakashi had been in the hospital at the time and stopped her before something bad happened. By the time she finally got control over it, Hiruzen had to study it for a bit before he could figure out what to do with it. He couldn't remove it so he borrowed some of the Uzumaki clan books off of Naruto and the two of them figured out what the best possible method for sealing the mark was. Yesterday the mark was sealed but the seal relied on Anko's willpower.

"You know that's not what I'm talking about." Naruto stopped rummaging through the cupboards and looked at the girl lying on the floor. Since Naruto had been busy with helping the Third figure out what the best sealing technique was and partaking in the Academy graduation exams, there hadn't been a time where the two of them could sit down and talk.

"You're like seven years old. Act a little more like a child and not a twenty year old stiff, like that one eye." Anko slowly crawled over to Naruto.

"We've been through this. One of us has to be mature." Naruto tilted his head to the left as he said that. "Oh look a kunai magically appeared where my head was a second ago. That's a cool trick."

"Tch. Can you stop dodging?"

"I did once remember. I had a kunai sticking in my skull."

"Oh comeon. The look on your face was priceless." Anko was now at Naruto's feet. She grabbed both of his legs and forced him to the floor.

"Anko. Let me go." Naruto struggled but couldn't overpower the girl seven years his elder. She placed the back his head against her developing chest and wrapped her legs around his waist. Her arms were draped over his shoulders. "Geez. You have to stop doing this. I'm almost a shinobi dammit."

"What? Can't I baby my little brother?"

"Roommate." Naruto corrected her.

"Unless you want another kunai in your head I suggest you shut up." And shut up he did. "Heh. You're too easy." Anko tightened her grasp over the boy. If he was a few years older than he may have enjoyed this situation in a different way, but he still too young to be aware of those things. "You may act mature but you're still a child. I should be asking you that question. How are you holding up?"

Naruto sighed. "I'm fine. My situation isn't as bad as you. Your mentor who had been looking after you for almost seven years turned out to be a massive dick who gave you a present that killed nine other people." And Naruto didn't want to mention the fact that she didn't live with anyone before him, which means she has no family alive either.

"Nah. I'm fine as well." Naruto could hear a hint of deception in her voice. She was trying to lie to herself.

"No you're not Anko. I've only bled once from your attacks in the past week, and that was today. Normally I'm bleeding two three times a day. Twice as much on weekends." Naruto said straightforwardly. It wasn't a big deal in this house.

"We can make up for that right now if you want."

"No thanks." Naruto fearfully said which caused Anko so slightly loosen her grip.

"What about you? I haven't seen you cry at all. It's been two years since the death of your family, and Orochimaru-sensei told you what to live for. Yet now he has contradicted that. He is one of the people you highly respect along with Hokage-sama and Jiraiya-sama, but now he is gone and Jiraiya-sama is chasing him across the country. There is no way that my situation is worse." For some reason Anko felt a little competitive about this.

"It doesn't matter. We still have more life to live." Naruto said as he closed his eyes. He was right; there was no point in glossing over the past too much.

"YOU'RE SEVEN YEARS OLD GODDAMIT ACT LIKE A CHILD!" Anko yelled as she wrapped her hands around the boy's neck.

"I'm seven years old. Stop choking me." Naruto wheezed out.

X (Three years later) X

Naruto and Itachi sat down in the main hall of the Uzumaki clan building. This building is a fair distance outside of Konoha, but it wasn't too far that it would make it a hassle to travel to and from. The two of them had recently become chuunin and wore the chuunin vest over their normal outfit. A lot has changed from the children they were three years ago. Itachi continued to live with his pacifistic nature and his helplessness started to eat at him. The continuous fighting that he was forced into made Itachi feel more and more helpless. Konoha had only just finished recovering from the war as well as the kyuubi attack so most of their missions as genin were desperate attempts to shoe that Konoha still had control of its area.

Naruto faced a much more severe change. Ever since Orochimaru left the village and Jiraiya went chancing him, Naruto slowly lost his reason for living. He was originally told to live for his families share as well, but that completely ignored him living for himself. It didn't take him long to realise that Orochimaru's reason for leaving was to fulfil his selfish ambition rather than living for himself. Not only that but Jiraiya's reason for leaving was to chase his old friend to the ends of the earth to escape from his own guilt which was also a very selfish reason. Naruto was told to live for others, but everyone else had been living for themselves, and Naruto was stuck at a crossroads of what to do. He currently found no joy in living and it was only on the rare occasions that he found something worth doing. He used to pretend to be the same happy Naruto, but it wasn't easy and it got to a point this year that a facade didn't matter to him anymore. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with his life. He had two choices, but wasn't sure which one he wanted take.

"This room still creeps me out." Itachi commented. The room they were currently in had nothing but 27 masks on a decorated wall. For some reason this was the first room you would see when you entered the Uzumaki clan house. The clan house was a two story building with a large enough backyard to practise sealing anything. The second story was the living quarters where everything you would find in a normal house was, but the first story had a scroll room with every book on sealing that the Uzumaki clan had, a meeting room to hold an entire clan worth of people in, the main room where they were in now, as well as a few other rooms that aren't worth noting.

Naruto shrugged. "It's not that bad. Just ignore that feeling of being watched." Naruto made sure to keep the clan building running, even though there were only two members of the clan left, and one of them didn't even know it. That was actually the reason they were here today.

"Naruto-san. Itachi-san." A voice called out from outside and was quickly followed by Setsuna walking in. She didn't pass this Chuunin Selection Exam so she had no vest like Naruto and Itachi did. "I've brought her." A young five year old girl with scarlet red hair walked into the room. She wore a green knee length dress and black pants. Naruto had to control himself so he didn't step back surprised. The little girl was looking more and more like his mother every day. If only she didn't look so much like an Uzumaki then Naruto would have been there for her more. Naruto and Itachi have been to Konoha Orphanage quite a few times over the past three years.

"Itachi-niisan, Naruto-niisan." The little girl bowed slightly. But as she did so she noticed the masks behind the two boys and doubled back in fright.

"Don't worry about these masks Rei-chan. They can't do anything as long as you don't wear them." Naruto said as he got up and walked towards the young girl. "Do you know where we are?"

"No." Uzumaki Rei softly answered. Setsuna and Itachi knew what today was about so they waited quietly.

"Okay. Did you see the symbol outside?" Rei nodded. "That is the symbol for the Uzumaki clan that you are a part of. My mother was also a part of this clan." With that Rei relaxed a little bit more. She understood what Naruto was saying. "Unfortunately, we are the only two members of this clan left in the village." The hope in Rei's eyes disappeared as she frowned. "But I am willing to teach you a little bit about our clan if you want to." Once again Rei smiled, even though it was a little bit forced.

"I would like that, thank you."

"I want you to stay with me here this week, I will not only teach you about our clan, but I will also teach you the basics of fuinjutsu which our clan excelled at. Of course Setsuna-chan will stay here as well." Naruto said with a smile. Even though he struggled to be in the same place as Rei, he didn't want his clan to die out with him.

"Okay." Rei nodded happily. She didn't feel very welcomed at the Orphanage, so this was a welcome change.

"Good Setsuna will you please take her upstairs to find a room for both of you?"

"Sure." Setsuna said as she grabbed Rei's hand and walked towards the back of the building where the stairs were.

As soon as they were gone Itachi spoke. "Are you sure you want to teach her now? She's still young and didn't have to grow up fast." Itachi held a hint of joy in his eyes. His younger brother Sasuke was the same age as Rei and he was happy that they weren't forced to grow up so quickly and they could enjoy their childhood, although Rei's might not be that simple.

"Now is probably the best time. I won't teach her any jutsu, just the fundamentals. I want her to be able to read a sealing array and be able to tell what it does instantly. That was the hardest thing I had to learn alone, so if I can teach her as much as I can it should be easier for her when she gets older." Naruto looked at his long-time friend. "You don't have to be here. Take advantage of this week off and spend it with your brother."

"I'm not teaching him anything yet though." Itachi said as he walked away. "Have fun this week."

XXX

That night Naruto sat on the roof of the clan building. The entire day was spent explaining to Rei the concept of ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, and finally fuinjutsu. She didn't have much shinobi knowledge but was a quick learned. She grasped the concept of all four of them rather quickly, especially with examples from Setsuna and Naruto. Naruto was glad that she was a quick learner which means that a week may be enough to learn the basics of reading fuinjutsu. To learn fuinjutsu is just as difficult as learning three different languages at the same time while an explosive tag is attached to your back that will explode if you get something wrong. Which is why learning the individual letters from each of these languages at an early age helps when you start to experiment with seals. Naruto continued to watch the sky as he dug within himself to see if he could find something he cared about enough about to be a reason to live.

"Hello." Setsuna had climbed up and now sat beside Naruto. "So what you thinking about?" Setsuna's casual tone snapped Naruto out of his depressed daze. He almost lost himself just then. He would start thinking about his life, then he would a reason to live, and so he would think about his life to find it, realise he had none and try again. It was a never ending cycle that Naruto has been getting himself into more and more recently.

"Oh you know. I'm just wondering if stars are just people from other planets who are trying to communicate with us." Naruto deadpanned.

"Who are you trying to be? Kakashi-sensei?" Setsuna tucked her knees into her chest and rested her head on them while she stared at Naruto. "Do you like sitting up here at night?"

"Yeah. It's calm and no one is here. It's a perfect time to relax." Naruto stretched out and lay flat on the roof. "What about you? Don't cats normally attempt to summon Satan at night?"

"Summon Satan? What's a Satan? Is it edible?" Setsuna curiously asked.

"Is food all you think about?"

"No. It's one of three things." Setsuna giggled. She now completely understood that her cat like traits were considered odd, but she can't change the way she was raised.

"Oh? So what are the other two?"

"One is my friends and family. The other…" Setsuna smiled cheekily. "is a secret."

"Well that's not fair. Now I want to know." Naruto sat up and gave her a little pouted look which caused her to giggle. "Bah… you can have that secret." Once again Naruto lay back. "Rei-chan's a good girl, isn't she?"

"She is a little troublemaker at the Orphanage, but I think she is a good girl." Setsuna thought back to her time at the orphanage. "I knew you were from the same clan and all, but are you sure you're not related in any other way?"

"No, we are not. Everyone I trust told me that she and I are not related in any way. We just coincidently belong to the same clan." Naruto looked a little sad as he said that. The prospect of having a family was something that he longed for deeply. It would give him something to fight for and he would never be alone. Anko was the closest thing that he had, but she is a good friend rather than family.

"That is a shame. Rei gets very lonely at the Orphanage. Only kids her age and I treat Rei nicely. Everyone else is either afraid of her or bully her. And I just can't figure out why."

Naruto thought for a moment as he needed to choose his words carefully. "There is a reason, but I think it is better if you go to the Hokage for this."

"Why?" This confused Setsuna, why would the Hokage know something about a random orphan. True he does visit the Orphanage every now and then but he wouldn't know every single one of them.

"Just trust me on this one." Naruto would beg if he had too since he knew what the punishment for speaking about it was. Actually thinking about it, maybe he should have a look at the seal.

"Okay then." It seemed like Naruto's answer was enough for Setsuna as she lay down like he was. The two of them watched the stars in silence.

"Hey Setsuna-chan." Naruto broke the silence. He needed to ask her something, it was a question that he knew the answer to, but he needed a reminder. "What is your dream for the future?"

"You've asked me this before. I want to be one of the strongest shinobi in the village and leave my mark on this place." Naruto nodded as he heard her answer again. She was confident in her goal and she knew what she wanted in life. Naruto didn't so he admired that part of her. "What about you Naruto? Every time I ask you brush it off by saying…"

"World peace." Naruto finished for her. Naruto decided to continue giving that answer since that was what he used to want.

"Yeah. But you aren't specific about it at all. How will you achieve this world peace?" Setsuna rolled onto her side and looked straight at Naruto who pretended not to notice.

"I still don't know. I'll figure it out later." Once again Naruto brushed the question off. Setsuna knew that she couldn't get anything out of him if he didn't want to. The two of them continued to lay there in silence for another five minutes before Setsuna spoke again.

"Things will stay like this, won't they? Nothing will change." Setsuna said with a hint of sadness in her tone.

"Things change Setsuna-chan. It's not something that we can stop." Naruto answered.

"Then let's make it change for the better." Setsuna smiled as she picked herself up. "I'm off to sleep."

"Goodnight." Naruto said without moving.

"Night." Setsuna said out loud before she muttered under her breath. "Please don't change."

X (At the end of the week) X

Naruto quickly wrote down a seal, it was a basic storage seal that most of the Konoha shinobi have on them. It's the best way of keeping all of their tools in the one place. Naruto turned it around to the other side of the table. "What does this do?"

Rei grabbed it and started looking for parts of the seal that she could recognise. Finally she found what she was looking for. "It's a storage seal."

"Correct." Naruto quickly started to write another seal down. He doubted that she would be able to figure out what this seal does. The array was shaped into a spiral just like the Uzumaki clan symbol. "What about this one?"

Rei grabbed it and looked at it intently. However as Naruto thought she didn't understand it at all. "I don't know." It was then that Setsuna looked over Rei's shoulder and saw the seal.

"Isn't this that teleporty one?" Setsuna smiled at the young girl beneath her.

"Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God) Jutsu. It is a space time ninjutsu that allows me to appear at any of these points. I am the third person who has learnt how to do this technique alone." Naruto smiled as he got up. "It is an incredibly complicated seal. Come with me please." Naruto started to walk through the hallways of the clan building with Rei and Setsuna in tow. They ended up in front of a sealed room. "Rei I want you to place your finger on that hole. You'll feel a little prick." Naruto pointed at a hole beside the door that was big enough for a finger to fit in. It was a little too high for Rei to reach so she used a step and placed her finger in it.

"Ow." She quickly withdrew her hand. A streak of blood trickled along her finger. She quickly licked it off.

"Are you okay?" Setsuna worriedly bent down beside Rei.

"Yeah I'm fine." Rei was too busy watching the door open itself.

"This is the storage room for the Uzumaki clan books. It is the most complex array of seals that I have seen. Only one with Uzumaki blood can open the door. Setsuna-chan, please stay out here, we won't be long." Ignoring Setsuna's complaint Naruto walked straight in with Rei.

"Woooow." Naruto smiled at Rei's comment. He had the same reaction when he first entered this room. There were rows upon rows of bookcases filled with books, not only that but there was a staircase downstairs to a basement with even more books and another door.

"This room was intended for every member of the Uzumaki clan to enter, so there are books here for every level of skill and for every style of seals. I've told you how every person can use a seal a little bit differently from the person who taught them. That is why there are so many books on the lower levels, because every one of these books are either the original or a copy of an Uzumaki clan members own book of seals. There is no point in learning all of them, but rather you should use them as reference until you make your own style." Naruto walked over to the closest bookshelf, and grabbed a book off of it. "These are the easiest books meant for the children of the clan who are not old enough to work with seals. This is the one you should start with. It's something that I didn't go over with you. "_The Importance of Uzumaki Blood in Fuinjutsu_" is something that you need to know." He handed the girl the book even though she was still admiring the room.

"Um… What's that door at the back?" Rei's question made Naruto smile.

"I don't know. I haven't been able to figure out how to get through that door." Rei looked at Naruto surprised. What could be behind that door that not even Naruto could get through it.

"Then again my fuinjutsu knowledge isn't the best yet either." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Come one let's go. We wouldn't want Setsuna-chan to start clawing at the walls."

X (That night) X

Naruto stood outside the window. Inside the room lay a sleeping Setsuna and Rei. There was something he needed to do but he wouldn't be able to do it if Rei wasn't asleep. After all it was illegal to tell her about IT. Naruto was hesitating because if Setsuna woke up then he would be in some serious trouble. Naruto quietly opened the window and crept in. His shinobi skills would really come in handy now. Naruto got closer and closer to the sleeping Rei and quietly touched her skin. He flooded a bit of his chakra into her system which caused her to shift uncomfortably. This should have made the seal visible. Naruto slowly rolled up her shirt until he saw what he was looking for.

"He layered two Four Trigrams Seals. This is an Eight Trigrams Seal. Geez this is complicated." Naruto observed it more. He noticed that there was a slight gap in-between the two Four Trigrams Seals which allowed the kyuubi's chakra to mix with Rei's. "What were you planning dad?" Naruto used this opening as an opportunity to meet something that was there on that night. Naruto poured his own mind and chakra into the little gap in the seal. Naruto opened his eyes to see that he was no longer inside the room, but in a sewer. There was a thin layer of water on the bottom, and pipes ran along the ceiling and all the walls were grey. Naruto knew where he should go. He walked into the closest room and looked up at the giant gate that blocked off half of the giant room.

"**A pathetic human came to visit me. I am touched.**" A loud booming voice came from the other side of the gate. The giant Nine Tailed Fox that Naruto saw that night was here, trapped inside the little girl.

"Don't flatter yourself."

"**You DARE speak to me like that. Come closer so I can eat you.**" The kyuubi stood up from its resting position and waited for Naruto to walk inside the gate.

"Do you think I am stupid?" Naruto walked closer to the gate but stayed well outside of Kurama's reach. He sat down on the water.

"**You are human.**" Kurama also gave up and lay back down. "**Although I do find you more interesting than this little girl I am currently in.**"

"How so?"

"**There is darkness in you. You hate the world.**"

"It is not the world I hate. I hate you."

Kurama laughed at Naruto's statement. "**Yet here you are talking with me. This is why I find all you humans stupid.**"

"That's coming from the caged fox." Naruto knew that there was no bigger punishment for the fox then to be trapped inside a young girl for her entire life. "I want to ask a question."

"**Go away.**" Kurama really didn't want to put up with this kid now. He still had a long time to wait before he had a chance of breaking out. "**I do not want to talk with the child of those who sealed me here.**"

Naruto jolted back in surprise. "How did you know I was their child?"

"**Oh you don't even know. HAHAHA.**" Kurama was having a field day with this. Suddenly he thought of an idea that could make things more interesting. "**I was sealed inside of your mother. Why do you think you have those whiskers?**"

Naruto stood back up. "BULLSHIT! There is no way…" Naruto rubbed the whisker marks on his face.

"**That's right. You know it to be true. But let me tell you something. It was no accident that I was freed.**" Naruto's eyes widened. "**A man in a mask appeared and extracted me. No one can survive when a bijuu is taken from their bodies. Then this masked man sent me to attack your village. Everyone that died was not on my hands, but that mans. Well, not exactly. I don't know who freed me from the masked man's control, but when I was freed I tried to destroy the rest of the village. It would have been fun, but your father managed to beat me and seal me. Is this story what you wanted to know? How your father died? How your mother died?**"

Naruto was stunned. A masked man attacked the village, and the reason for his family's death was this one man. Naruto started to clench his fists and teeth. "Do you know who it was?" Naruto forced the words out of his closed mouth.

"**No I do not. I hate that man just as much as you do. I DO NOT LIKE TO BE CONTROLLED! The first thing I will do when I get out is kill that man.**" Even the kyuubi was clenching his teeth.

"If I even find that man. He is DEAD!" The kyuubi had to hide his smile. The boy was now filled with hatred and would do things that he would regret. This was a good day for him.

"**Get out. Do not visit me again.**" Naruto was in no mood to continue this conversation so he left the mindscape. As soon as he disappeared the kyuubi started laughing. "**Struggle pathetic human. Live on with nothing to live for. Find enjoyment in the sadness of others, and finally get your revenge. Feel the pain of a harsh life, then completely break when you realise that your sister is in fact alive and you gave her up when you continued on your dark path. I give it a week before he leaves the village. Looks like something interesting will happen.**"

X (A week later) X

True to the kyuubi's thoughts, Naruto had burned to the end of his fuse at the end of the week. Naruto had now tasted pure hatred, and for some reason he thrived in it. Maybe staying in the village was not what he should do. He had considered leaving before, but now he actually wanted to leave. Naruto was walking home after a successful C-Rank mission with his team. He had decided to leave the village today and search for something to do with himself, but there was one person that he had to tell. If he left without saying a word to Anko then he would have felt some sort of regret. Naruto opened the door to their shared apartment and instantly bit down on the incoming shuriken.

"Eim hom." Naruto spoke with his clenched teeth before he spat the shuriken to the floor.

"Welcome back. You didn't complain about me throwing something. Are you feeling alright?" Anko walked out wearing nothing but a shirt.

"Yeah I am fine." Naruto continued to stand in the doorway.

"And nothing about my clothes. Are you sure you are alright?" Anko was now seriously worried She hadn't seen her ten year old roommate this serious.

"Yes I am fine Anko. In fact I'm finally seeing clearly for the first time." Naruto's smile caused Anko to take a step back. It was creepy. It was a smile that she wore, not Naruto.

"What's going on?"

"I am leaving the village." Naruto wasn't going to waste time.

"WHAT!?" Anko walked forward and grabbed Naruto's collar. "Bullshit you are. That's not a funny joke."

"You think I am joking." Naruto grabbed her hands and pried them off. "I've been thinking about this for a while. I have nothing in this village that is worth staying for."

Anko realised that he was being serious, and now she was panicking. She didn't want a person who played a major part in her life to leave again. "What about your team?"

"They are just a team. Not worth staying for."

"What about the village?"

"A bunch of people who rely on the higher ups but don't care about the sacrifices they make. Not worth staying for."

"What about me?" Anko was now getting desperate. This emotionless Naruto was not the one she knew. "Aren't I worth staying for? Aren't we like a family?"

"You were the only thing that was keeping me here. But I realised that all we were doing was licking each other's wounds. We are both using the other as a replacement for our dead family."

Anko fell to her knees. It seems that the shock of losing Orochimaru three years ago never quite disappeared. "That's not true.

"But it is Anko. The quicker you realise that the better off you will be." Naruto turned his back to the crying girl. "It has been fun Anko-nee." Naruto said those final words and closed the door behind him. The girl on the floor was not able to hear those words as she was grasping the mark on her neck and crying desperately on the floor.

X (One month later) X

Naruto had been traveling with no real direction for the past month. Thankfully Anko was too shocked to call for someone to stop him so Naruto got out without a hitch. He left his Hiraishin marks all over the village over the years so he was able to get back in if he even needed anything. The best part was he designed his marks so they stayed invisible until used. Although, was he considered a missing-nin? He wasn't exactly sure. Even though he had no idea where to go, Naruto knew who he was looking for, and he finally picked up a trail. Orochimaru had a three year head start, and since they were on good terms hopefully he would help Naruto.

Naruto was currently walking along the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers. He heard about a pale white man with snakes in this area, so he was trying to find any sort of settlement where he could find further information. The best part was he could drop his marks almost anywhere along his journey so he had fast access to multiple places. However, he would like to find Orochimaru soon.

Fortunately for Naruto, Orochimaru had found him first. When Orochimaru heard that Naruto had left the village, he took this as an opportunity to get a new recruit. He had spent the past month trying to convince their leader that he was good enough to join. Their leader said that he was allowed to join if he could survive his to be partner's assault.

Naruto's instincts kicked in when he felt something behind him. He jumped away just in time to avoid a hand with black tendrils coming out of its back come flying towards him. The tendrils slowly retracted back into the now visible body. A man wearing an unusual black cloak with red clouds was Naruto's assailant. He wore a white hood and a black mask with a Taki headband with a scratch through it on his forehead. He has pupil-less green eyes that seemed to stare straight through Naruto.

"Are you sure this is the brat?" The man's voice was rather harsh, but Naruto had no time to comment. He quickly dropped his bag of things and pulled out some specially designed kunai. This kunai was one pointed but had a hole in the centre of the blade. Along its base rested the spiral Hiraishin seal. "He doesn't look like much." The man charged towards Naruto as he threw the kunai. The man made a few quick hand seals and his skin turned into a dark grey which reflected the kunai. Naruto's kunais were reinforced by seals, but the man managed to break the kunai. This was not good. The man was now upon Naruto and tried to punch him with his hardened fist, but Naruto disappeared. The man ducked to avoid a kick to his head, and rolled back to avoid a kunai. Naruto had teleported to the kunai he previously threw.

"Who are you?" Naruto rolled backwards pulling out ten kunai and throwing them all over the place.

"My name is Kakuzu. Not that you will be alive to remember it." The man now known as Kakuzu spoke down to the boy.

"Don't be like that. We could be friends." Naruto said confidently. He didn't know this Kakuzu, but he wasn't going to lose to someone who relied on a sneak attack. Kakuzu once again charged forward, Naruto smiled as he got ready to try something. Naruto tried to jump backwards but realised that his leg was stuck. Kakuzu's hand somehow separated from his body and held him in place. Naruto quickly pulled out three kunai which had a spike in the middle and three others surrounding it and threw them in a triangle around him. Kakuzu now punched Naruto in the gut, but hit nothing but air.

"Space time ninjutsu." Kakuzu smiled. "I want his heart." Naruto made a few hand signs.

"Three Point Sin Seal: Seal of Pride." The three special kunai that Naruto flung around started spinning. The air around Kakuzu flickered but was barely noticeable. Kakuzu could see that a pyramid type thing surrounded him with those kunai as base points.

"Oooh. Fuinjutsu. You are very interesting. But this won't hold me." Kakuzu walked up and touched the barrier around him. His hand was instantly shredded into pieces.

"Those who are proud overestimate themselves. Pride causes more harm to yourself than to others. Suffer because of your pride." Naruto said with a smile. "So who are you?"

"I said this isn't enough to hold me." The shredded parts of Kakuzu's hand started putting itself back together outside of the barrier. The hand grabbed one of the kunai and released the seal.

"Shit." Naruto jumped away from the killing aura that radiated off of Kakuzu.

"That's enough Kakuzu." Two more people walked out of the trees. Naruto smiled as he recognised Orochimaru, but he also noted that he was wearing the same cloak as Kakuzu. The third person was also wearing the same cloak. His back was hunched and he had five parallel strips of hair along his head. The man wore a mask to cover his mouth. The hunched man continued to speak. "He is unique enough so why not let him join?"

"I don't want a little runt to be my partner. How old are you kid?" Kakuzu dropped his killing aura.

"He should be ten now. And to have improved so much since three years ago." Orochimaru licked his lips.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but what is going on?" Naruto was now officially confused.

"We want you to join our organisation." Orochimaru stated. "Come with us and you will meet the leader. You can decide what to do then." Naruto was still confused, but he didn't think that any of them would let him refuse so he decided to go with them.

XXX

Naruto sat alone in a room. The three who had accompanied them there left him alone. Kakuzu, Orochimaru, and the now known Sasori were three of the five members of this organisation. There was supposedly another member that none of them had met yet, but it didn't concern them. They all could get what they wanted out of this organisation, and Naruto would probably be able to get the same thing. So he waited patiently for the leader to arrive.

He was currently in Amegakure. It was supposed to be hard to get into but with the other three it was very simple. Naruto made sure that he continued to place marks everywhere. Kakuzu had only used one jutsu against Naruto, yet Naruto revealed his best abilities. Since he was young he wouldn't be able to compete with your average shinobi without them, but these guys were not your average shinobi. They were all S-Class missin-nin so Naruto was severely outclassed.

"Welcome to Amegakure." Naruto quickly stood up and turned to see a man and a woman join him. The women had mid-length blue hair with a paper flower. She had grey eyes that were highlighted by her lavender eye shadow. She also had a piercing in her bottom lip. She adorned the uniform cloak. The man had orange spikey hair, and his face was covered with piercings; six piercings and a metal bar in each ear, three bars through his nose and two spiked piercings on his lower lip. He wore the same cloak as the rest. He had a very punkish image with the amount of piercings, but Naruto was captivated by his eyes. They were purple with black circles inside of circles. These eyes were the legendary Rinnegan.

Naruto took a step back when he recognised those eyes. They were supposed to be a myth. "The Rinnegan…" Naruto let those words slip.

"So you know of these eyes." The man spoke and judging from his tone, he was the leader. "Please have a seat." The man pointed to the chair Naruto was just sitting in. Nauto didn't argue and sat down, while the man and woman sat down in chairs of their own.

"My name is Konan. Pleasure to meet you." The woman introduced herself first. Her voice seemed somewhat gentle, but if the pattern followed from the other members he had already met, she was an S-Class missing-nin so he couldn't drop his guard.

"My name is Namikaze Naruto."

"We know who you are Naruto-kun." The leader spoke again. "I am known as Pain." The man's aura was causing Naruto to shake, yet he felt a hint of familiarity from it. "I am the leader of the Akatsuki and I want you to join."

"Why me though?" Naruto was curious. He would accept assuming their goals matched, but he wanted to know. "I am not an S-Rank like the rest of you are. I have no kekkei genkai."

"That is true, but do not sell yourself short. Namikaze Naruto, the son of the Fourth Hokage, adapt in fuinjutsu, taught by two of the three legendary sanin, and the second coming of the yellow flash. You may be young, but you have started to gain a reputation for yourself. If Kakuzu didn't kill you then even he can see your potential."

Naruto looked down slightly. To be acknowledged by a group of S-Rankers is an honour. "Okay, I am interested in joining, but before that what would happen if I say no."

"Nothing." Pain casually said. "We will do nothing to you."

"Even though you have showed me your base?" Naruto doubted his words.

Konan spoke next. "We don't mind you leaving right now, but we are confident that you will join our cause. After all, for a student of Jiraiya-sensei to leave that village, there must be something you want, and our power is more than enough to grant it." Konan smiled.

"Wait… Jiraiya-sensei?" Naruto was sure that's what he heard.

"Yes. The two of us were taught by Jiraiya-sensei, although that is a story for another time. We are the Akatsuki and our ultimate goal is world peace, through world domination." Pain didn't even ease into it; he showed all of his cards from the very beginning.

"Are you serious? How?"

"We create a kinjutsu (forbidden jutsu) using the Tailed Beasts." Once again Pain wasted no time.

"That's insane. Those things are monsters… wait… that's actually possible." Naruto thought about it. People feared those beasts and if the one organisation had control of all of those beasts then it wouldn't be too hard to imagine everyone bowing to that organisation.

"This is a well thought out plan." Pain continued. "I knew you would understand considering you have seen one of them first hand. So will you join us?" Pain lifted his hand. An Akatsuki cloak Naruto's size came flying towards him hand.

"Wait Nagato. You don't know what he wants." Konan said.

"No matter what it is we will make it happen. His fuinjutsu will be a major help to our cause." Pain casually said. "What is it that you want, Naruto-kun?"

"Heh. There are two things I want. I want a certain man dead, but I will do that myself." Naruto smile was a little creepy. That's what that familiar feeling from Pain's aura was; it was similar to his own. "And I will join this organisation to complete the other. I just don't want to be bored." Naruto smiled as he got up and grabbed the cloak off of Pain. "Thank you for letting me join. I promise I will not disappoint you."

* * *

A five year old Uzumaki Rei slowly opened her eyes. Her bed was next to a window so she could see the sun slowly rise over the horizon. Today was going to be just another boring day. She lives in the Konoha Orphanage which is a little distance away from the main village. The Orphanage looks after as many orphans as they can afford. However they can afford very little. Funding comes from the Hokage's office, but he is unable to look after it personally so anyone with a little say in that building decides how much funding the Orphanage will receive. As of now the Orphanage is looking after ten kids, including Rei who was also the youngest. Their sleeping quarters are not separate so all ten kids were currently sleeping in this one room. Rei could see that she woke up earlier than the wake up time, so she didn't move a muscle. She didn't want the Mother or Father to catch her awake early. If they caught someone awake and running around early they would be forced to help in the kitchen making breakfast. If Rei was caught up early she would be forced to walk to the nearby river and fill up two pales of water and bring them back before she could eat the leftovers from breakfast. Rei never understood why her punishment was worse, but she got use to avoiding it.

"Wake up kids." The Mother was a well-rounded middle age lady who was strict but kind to the kids. However, she was especially strict with Rei. "It's morning. Breakfast time." The many kids started to wake up. Rei also started to move. Most of the kids weren't morning people so they moved like zombies towards the kitchen, however there were two people who were always energetic every morning. In fact both of them were already awake and changed.

"Come on Rei-chan. You have to hurry up." A brown haired girl had a ribbon in her mouth as she pulled back her long hair. She was the only one allowed to be awake early since she was a fully-fledged shinobi. She wore tight black pants and shirt with a purple open front jacket, as well as a white scarf. Her forehead protector sat around her waist and acted like a belt. She just finished doing her hair up into a ponytail which reached her waist.

"I'm up Setsunee. Leave me alone." Rei walked past the girl but was stopped by her hand.

"Don't be mean Rei-chan." Setsuna started to cry comedy tears. "Today's a bad day. My lucky ribbon fell of when training, Rei-chan is mean to me; I want to go back to bed." Rei giggled at Setsuna's childish attitude.

"Don't say that Setsuna. Didn't you have somewhere to take Rei-chan today?" A boy a little bit older than Setsuna appeared. He was wearing a black shirt, white shorts and a green jacket. He was also a shinobi and his forehead protector was shaped like a bandana and covered his head. There were three pins on the bandanna which had the Konoha Orphanage symbol of a 3X3 grid inside a circle. His straight black hair was pushed out the back of his bandanna. He also had black eyes.

"Oh you're right Urushi-san. I can't stay upset." Setsuna smiled at Urushi and then turned back to Rei. "I have somewhere to take you after breakfast so make sure you're ready." With that Setsuna ran off to talk with some of the other kids.

"Come on Rei-chan. Get changed quickly." Urushi only became a genin last year while Setsuna has been a genin for three years, and has even had her shot at the Chuunin Selection Exams. Rei wanted to become a shinobi as well, but had to wait before they would let her into the Academy. The hardest part of waiting is that she had very few friends, and the ones she was closest with were the two shinobi who are always doing missions to help fund the Orphanage, so it could take on more kids.

Rei quickly grabbed her clothes and went into the designated morning women's changing room where she quickly changed into her green knee length dress and black pants. She quickly brushed her scarlet red hair to get rid of her bed hair and then ran out to join the others in the eating hall.

XXX

Setsuna held onto Rei's hand as they walked. They have been walking for a good fifteen minutes, and were almost there.

"So where are we going?" Rei asked as she looked up at the older girl.

"Oh someplace." Setsuna vaguely answered.

"That's not an answer." Rei said with a matter-of-factly tone. She wasn't going to complain that they were going away from the village. When Rei went to the village for whatever reason, the villagers gave her looks as if she didn't belong there. She didn't know any of them yet they all seem to reject her and call her names. There were only a few people who treated her kindly. Setsuna and her team, the kids at the Orphanage, and the Hokage.

"Naruto-san wanted me to bring you to this place, and I think you are going to be happy with what he has to show you." Rei trusts Setsuna enough to not ask any more questions. But she was really curious as to what Naruto would want to show her. Naruto had visited her at the Orphanage once every now and then, but he made no attempts to be friends with her. It was weird but as long as he treats her nicely why would she complain.

They finally arrived at an old Japanese style two story house. Rei didn't know that there were any buildings like this so far out from the village. The entryway onto the property had a symbol on the top of it. It was a swirl. Rei continued to stare at this symbol until Setsuna pulled her hand to make her walk onto the property.

"Naruto-san. Itachi-san." Setsuna yelled as she walked into the front room. "I've brought her." Rei had no choice but to follow.

"Itachi-niisan, Naruto-niisan." Naruto has blond spikey hair that went in whatever direction it felt like. He wore a chuunin vest over an orange jacket, and he also had orange pants. His forehead protector was around his forehead. Itachi had straight black hair that just missed out on touching his shoulders. He wore a black high collared shirt with the chuunin vest over it. His forehead protector was also on his forehead. Rei bowed to be polite, but halfway through her bow she looked at the room and saw that there were 27 masks lined up on the wall behind Naruto and Itachi. The masks gave off an aura that was telling her not to play around here or else things could go wrong.

Thankfully Naruto spoke up to comfort her. "Don't worry about these masks Rei-chan. They can't do anything as long as you don't wear them." Naruto got up and walked towards the Rei. "Do you know where we are?"

"No." Rei softly answered. She had no idea where they were. She had seen that symbol outside on the vests that the Konoha shinobi wear, but what could this place out here be.

"Okay. Did you see the symbol outside?" Rei nodded, she just though that. "That is the symbol for the Uzumaki clan that you are a part of. My mother was also a part of this clan." Uzumaki clan? With that Rei relaxed a little bit more. Does that mean she had a clan? "Unfortunately, we are the only two members of this clan left in the village." Rei's face dropped. There was a chance that she would have a family, but now she learned that that wasn't the case. "But I am willing to teach you a little bit about our clan if you want to." Once again Rei smiled, even though it was a little bit forced.

"I would like that, thank you." There was no point in blaming Naruto for something he couldn't control so Rei kept her polite manner around him.

"I want you to stay with me here this week, I will not only teach you about our clan, but I will also teach you the basics of fuinjutsu which our clan excelled at. Of course Setsuna-chan will stay here as well." Naruto's smile was just what Rei needed to cheer up. Her clan wasn't dead yet. She could help rebuild it. Not only that but she didn't have to be at the Orphanage for an entire week.

"Okay." Rei nodded happily.

"Good Setsuna will you please take her upstairs to find a room for both of you?"

"Sure." Setsuna said as she grabbed Rei's hand and walked towards the back of the building where the stairs were. The two of them climbed up the stairs. "Let's find the biggest room for the two of us." Rei nodded happily as they ran around checking each room for one they would be comfortable in.

XXX

Rei and Setsuna lay down in their room for the night. Naruto and Setsuna spent the majority of the day teaching Rei the basics of ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu before Naruto started explaining fuinjutsu. Itachi left the three of them alone since there was no need for him to be there. What Naruto told Rei about the clan wasn't good news. They came from a village Uzushiogakure which was now destroyed. The survivors of the Uzumaki clan scattered in order to escape persecution. The Uzumaki clan and the Senju clan were on very good terms back before the village system and this continued on until today, which is why the Uzumaki clan symbol is on the Konoha uniform. This stuff didn't really matter to Rei since it was before her time. Naruto agreed with her on that point. There is no point going over the history of the clan, but it was important because the reason they were destroyed is because their fuinjutsu was feared. He said that he would be teaching her the fundamentals of fuinjutsu but not how to make the seals, which would have to wait until she was older.

"Aren't you going to sleep?" Earlier Setsuna laid out two futons side by side so she could just reach over and grab Rei if she wanted to.

"I was thinking." Rei said as she rolled into a ball. This was a first for her, sleeping in a place that wasn't the Orphanage.

"You should get some rest. You must be tired; we only took a single lunch break." Naruto kept the place well stocked with food.

"Yeah, it's just I learnt a lot today…" Rei once again glossed over the fundamentals of ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu in her head. She was good at learning, but if she had seven days with this large amount of information she would burn out.

"Naruto-san knows what he is doing." Setsuna said with a smile. Rei turned around to face her.

"Do you like Naruto?" And with that Setsuna's face turned a bright red.

"Um… no… well… um…" Setsuna panicked. She didn't expect this question from a five year old. Kids were getting more aware these days. Such is a time of peace.

Rei giggled at her reaction. "That's a yes. Why don't you tell him?"

Setsuna sighed. "You can't just tell someone that you like them. It's not that simple."

"Why not?" Rei innocently asked.

"You're just a child so you don't understand." Setsuna looked down a little sad. "Both Naruto-san and Itachi-san have deep issues that they don't want to talk about, and I know that it is eating at them both. Why am I even saying this to you? You're still young; you don't need to worry about these things."

"You're still young as well Setsunee. Don't forget you are a child too." Rei seriously said. She didn't like being called a child from someone only five years older than her. "Why not go talk to him?"

"It's late. He's probably asleep."

"Give me a second." Rei closed her eyes and focused. She accidently did this once and realised that she could find people who were nearby her. It made her tired quickly, but she was going to sleep anyway so she might as well. "He's on the roof." Rei confidently said.

"How do you know that?"

"I can feel people if I concentrate."

"Is that how you always find me when we play hide-n-seek? I'm a shinobi. You're not meant to be better than me at that game." The two of them shared a quick laugh. "Okay I'm going. You better be asleep by the time I get back." Setsuna got out of her futon and left the room. Rei fell asleep almost instantly.

X (A week later) X

Rei sat patiently as Naruto wrote a seal down quickly. Rei and Naruto sat on opposite ends of the table and this was a final test to see if she had gotten the fundamentals as well as the ability to read seals. Naruto finally finished and showed it to Rei. "What does this do?"

Rei grabbed it and started looking for parts of the seal that she could recognise. She looked for parts that she could recognise. She couldn't read it all but she read arrays that were for 'capacity', 'size', 'durability', and 'eternal'. From what she could make out, this seal needed to last forever, and be unable to be altered once used. There was one main seal that required these two things. "It's a storage seal." The size and durability were to limit the size of the objects and make sure those objects don't get damaged while inside the seal.

"Correct." Naruto quickly started to write another seal down. Rei waited patiently. This one took a little longer than the previous few. "What about this one?" The array was shaped into a spiral just like the Uzumaki clan symbol and the individual sections were hard to read.

Rei grabbed it and looked at it intently. She could make out 'space', 'eternal', and it even had 'Naruto'. She had absolutely no idea what this array could mean. "I don't know."

"Isn't this that teleporty one?" Setsuna smiled at the young girl beneath her. She had looked over to see. Teleporty one? It must be something he has used before.

"Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God) Jutsu. It is a space time ninjutsu that allows me to appear at any of these points. I am the third person who has learnt how to do this technique alone." Naruto smiled as he got up. "It is an incredibly complicated seal. Come with me please."

Naruto started to walk through the hallways of the clan building with Rei and Setsuna in tow. They ended up in front of a sealed room. "Rei I want you to place your finger on that hole. You'll feel a little prick." Naruto pointed at a hole beside the door that was big enough for a finger to fit in. Rei was a little upset that she couldn't reach it and had to use a step, but kept her complaints to herself.

"Ow." She quickly withdrew her hand. A streak of blood trickled along her finger. She quickly licked it off.

"Are you okay?" Setsuna worriedly bent down beside Rei.

"Yeah I'm fine." Rei was too busy watching the door open itself.

"This is the storage room for the Uzumaki clan books. It is the most complex array of seals that I have seen. Only one with Uzumaki blood can open the door. Setsuna-chan, please stay out here, we won't be long." Ignoring Setsuna's complaint Naruto walked straight in with Rei.

"Woooow." Rei was completely stunned by the room they were currently in. There were rows upon rows of bookcases filled with books, not only that but there was a staircase downstairs to a basement with even more books and another door. The room was huge.

"This room was intended for every member of the Uzumaki clan to enter, so there are books here for every level of skill and for every style of seals. I've told you how every person can use a seal a little bit differently from the person who taught them. That is why there are so many books on the lower levels, because every one of these books are either the original or a copy of an Uzumaki clan members own book of seals. There is no point in learning all of them, but rather you should use them as reference until you make your own style." Rei barely noticed Naruto speaking. She was impressed by the large number of books. All of these had to do with her clan which she didn't know she had a week ago. Naruto walked over to the closest bookshelf, and grabbed a book off of it. "These are the easiest books meant for the children of the clan who are not old enough to work with seals. This is the one you should start with. It's something that I didn't go over with you. "_The Importance of Uzumaki Blood in Fuinjutsu_" is something that you need to know." Rei accepted the book but was still looking at the room. She noticed something that Naruto failed to address.

"Um… What's that door at the back?" Rei's question made Naruto smile.

"I don't know. I haven't been able to figure out how to get through that door." Rei looked at Naruto surprised. What could be behind that door that not even Naruto could get through it?

"Then again my fuinjutsu knowledge isn't the best yet either." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Come one let's go. We wouldn't want Setsuna-chan to start clawing at the walls."

The two of them walked towards the door which Rei didn't notice had closed after them. Naruto touched the centre of the door so it would open itself. There was no reason to test if Uzumaki's were leaving the room. As soon as they left they saw Setsuna taking a nap on the floor.

"She's a cat." Naruto said before he stepped over her and walked away. Rei sat down with her back against a wall and looked at the book she held in her hands. She was happy because now she had something to do to pass the time back at the Orphanage. She would have to thank the Mother and Father for teaching her how to read, albeit reluctantly for some reason. Rei paid no mind to it and opened the book. She looked at the first page and found out that this book was written by someone names Uzumaki Mito. Rei had never heard that name before but was happy she existed.

X (A week later) X

Rei had climbed up onto the roof with Uzumaki Mito's book. She was almost done and didn't want to stop until she finished it. It listed a bunch of Uzumaki clan trait as well as certain abilities that the Uzumaki clan had. Blood itself is a key component in certain seals as it will make them stronger, and the Uzumaki blood is extra potent which is why the Uzumaki clan was amazing at fuinjutsu. They had the blood advantage. Uzumaki's were also known for longevity. They lived incredibly long lives compared to your average clan. There were also some of the Uzumaki's whose blood was so special that they could externalise it from opening points as chains. And those chains could then be used as barriers. The Uzumaki blood was amazing. It could do so much.

There was also a certain thing they could do that stood out to Rei. It's a certain ability known as Mind's Eye of the Kagura. This ability was not unique to the Uzumaki's but there was a higher chance of obtaining it if you were an Uzumaki. It is an incredibly rare trait that gives someone the ability to sense chakra over a vast range. Not only that but if it was focused on specific people she could tell their emotions as well as detect genjutsu from fluctuations in their chakra. The best part is with it you can completely read a person from over ten kilometres away even if you have never met them before. Rei was sure that this was what she had and needed to test it once she got a better grasp on using chakra. There had to be a book for that in the clan building but she needed either Setsuna or Naruto to take her there.

Rei closed her eyes to try to sense people around the Orphanage. She smiled when she realised that it was working, and that she could see everyone. If she continued to practice like this every day her chakra reserves were sure to increase. Although she may be doing it wrong. After she read how to do it in the book she never got tired from using it again. She felt someone creeping up behind her.

"Hello Urunii." Rei said without even opening her eyes.

"Aww. What kind of shinobi am I if I can't even sneak up on you?" Urushi sat down next to Rei. "So what are you doing up here?"

"I was finishing this book." Rei said as she closed the book. She had finished it and was reading Mito's note at the end. She could read the rest of that later.

"Oh? Is that the book you've been reading all week? Can I see it?" Urushi was like an older brother to everyone else here. He wasn't the oldest, but he was the most outgoing. "'_The Importance of Uzumaki Blood in Fuinjutsu_' Eh? Uzumaki blood?" Urushi flicked open to the first few pages. "Ooooh. You are a part of a clan. I didn't know that."

"Yeah. I found out last week." Rei looked a little sad. "It's a dead clan. Only me and Naruto-niisan are a part of it."

"Are you upset because you don't have a living clan?" Urushi looked down at the girl. He understood what she was feeling. After all, all the kids in the Orphanage had no family. "Let me tell you a story."

"Please." Rei said happily. Urushi was good at over exaggerating his easy missions into excellent stories.

"Okay. This is a story about this Orphanage. It is about a very loving Mother, and a very caring boy. Me, the Mother and a few others were taking a walk when we found an injured boy against a tree. Mother was good with healing ninjutsu so she patched him up as good as she could, and so we took him back to the orphanage. He had no memories and no name, and thus we had to give him a name. The Mother named him Kabuto. He was skilled enough to learn a bit of medical ninjutsu. You know how the Orphanage is always struggling with money right?" Rei nodded. She wondered where this story was going. "Well on occasion we helped injured shinobi for a price. It was something we needed to do. But the Orphanage got to a point where we could barely keep all of the kids that we had. Kabuto did what he could for the Orphanage, but an opportunity arose for him where he could become a proper shinobi. So he left us at the Orphanage, and to be honest I felt betrayed. But a few days later, the men who took Kabuto away came and told Mother what the actual story was. Kabuto agreed to work as a shinobi on the condition that everything he earned would go to the Orphanage. He took an incredibly dangerous mission as a spy so the rest of us could continue to live in the Orphanage. Kabuto gave up his own freedom so that we at the Orphanage would have enough to keep on living and even take in new kids such as you. As soon as I found out that story I did everything I could to become a shinobi so I could follow in Kabuto's footsteps and help the Orphanage. Fortunately, Setsuna was on her way to becoming a shinobi so we could afford sending me to the Academy. Kabuto is honestly the man I admire the most. Who else can have the courage to give up everything you had for someone else's sake? That is why I am not upset that I don't have a family. Everyone in this Orphanage is a family. We look after each other, get stronger together and continue working hard so we can make sure every orphan like us can live happily. And one day, I hope that Kabuto is able to come back to the Orphanage and play with the rest of us again." Urushi took a deep breath. He had talked a lot just then.

"What happened to the Mother? Is she still a shinobi?" Rei's seemingly innocent question caused Urushi to flinch. With that it was obvious what happened to her.

"She died on a mission three years ago." Urushi looked sad for a little longer but it didn't take him long to snap out of it. "So are you going to become a shinobi? It looks like you are from this book."

"Yeah I want to. I want to become stronger so people in the village will acknowledge me." Once again Urushi flinched. He knew about the demon fox inside of her, but was able to see past that. To make the rest of the village do that is a hard task. Thankfully Rei didn't notice Urushi's quick lapse and continued. "I think with these books that my clan has I will be able too. I just need to get into the Academy first."

"Hehe. Yes you should. Enjoy being a kid, and when you get a little bit older you can join the Academy." Urushi pat her head. "Now come. I think Setsuna is back."

XXX

"Hey Setsunee." It was now night time and there was still an hour before bedtime so most of the kids played around inside until the very end. Setsuna, and Urushi were sitting outside talking about shinobi stuff when Rei walked out to ask Setsuna a favour. "I want to go to the clan building. I want a new book from there."

"Sure. I'll ask Father if you can wake up early so we can go." Setsuna kindly said. Naruto did say that she would want to go back for more books.

"Oooh… Can I come too?" Urushi asked.

"You have to ask Rei-chan that question. It is her building." Setsuna playfully shrugged her shoulder.

"Of course you can come." Even in the world of shinobi, children were still children.

"Thank you Rei-chan. You better go back inside. We will all be going to sleep soon so we can wake up nice and early." Urushi was about to usher Rei inside when he saw someone running towards the Orphanage in a hurry. "Hey isn't that…"

"Itachi-san?" Setsuna finished Urushi's sentence. The raven haired chuunin was running at full speed towards the Orphanage. "What's wrong Itachi-san?" Setsuna called out to the boy who continued to approach. Setsuna's voice got the attention of the Mother.

"Stop yelling Setsuna. He's coming this way." The Mother was annoyed by the yelling. But she didn't understand. Cats have excellent night vision and she could see that Itachi was distraught by something. Itachi finally got close enough to speak to them.

After a couple of breaths he spoke. "Naruto has defected from the village."

"Wait what? What are you saying?" Itachi was not the type to joke around, so Setsuna took his words seriously. "What do you mean defected?" Urushi sat in silence stunned while Rei looked a little confused. The Mother decided to stay out of this conversation and went inside to tell all the kids to go to sleep.

"I mean he has left the village." Itachi's words were chocking a bit in his throat, but it was still easy to listen to.

"Why?" Rei finally caught on. "Why would Naruto-niisan leave the village?"

"I don't know. There is an emergency meeting at the Hokage's office. I think you might want to be there Setsuna."

"Yeah let's go." The two of them ran back towards the village.

"Come inside Rei-chan. It's bed time." Urushi walked inside with Rei. He had met Naruto a few time and thought he could be friends with him. But he was Setsuna's teammate, so Urushi has to think of something to cheer Setsuna up later.

"No." Rei stoped Urushi from walking inside. She couldn't understand why Naruto would leave the village, but she wanted to find out.

"What do you mean no? It's bed time." Urushi pleaded. He could see in her eyes what she wanted to do.

"I'm going to the meeting." Rei turned around and started running. Urushi wasn't sure what to do.

"Don't let a lady go out alone at night." Father came and pushed Urushi forward. Father had been listening the whole time. "Go…" After a second push Urushi ran off after Rei. He quickly scooped her up and continued running.

XXX

"Okay so is everyone here?" Hiruzen walked into one of the few meeting rooms in the Hokage's building to see a large number of high rankers of the village sitting in one room. Hiruzen walked to the head seat and sat down as comfortably as he could, given the situation. All the high ranking officials were seated around the rectangular table in no real order. To Hiruzen's left sat UtataneKoharu and to his right sat Mitokado Homura. On the opposite end of the rectangular table sat Shimura Danzo. There were multiple empty seats around the table, but the others were filled by clan leaders.

"Follow the procedure everyone." Hiruzen spoke from his seated position. This was an official meeting and so the proper procedure must be followed.

Koharu stood up first. "UtataneKoharu from the Konoha Council. I acknowledge that everything said in this room is highly confidential and will not be spoken outside of this room without permission from the Hokage." Koharu sat down after speaking.

The man to her left stood up. "Akimichi Chouza, leader of the Akamichi clan. Same as my right." He is a well-rounded man, but that was a common trait among the Akamichi clan. He had long red hair with unusual purple marks on his face. He wears a black suit with armour covering his front which has the kanji for 'food' on it. A hachimaki was tied around his head, and he wore armguards. As soon as Chouza sat down the man to his left stood up.

"Shikaku Nara, leader of the Nara clan. As my right." This man had straight black hair tied in a ponytail which made his head comparable to a pineapple. Two scars sat on the right side of his face, and a goatee hung from his chin. He adorned a mesh shirt under his flak jacket and a deer skin coat on top of that. He also had a pair of hand guards on. Once again he sat and the person on his left stood up.

"Yamanaka Inoichi, leader of the Yamanaka clan. As my right." He had long blond hair which was spikey and had a ponytail at the back. His eyes were a blue-green colour which was common among his clan. He wore the standard Konoha jounin attire with hand guards and a red hoari. He sat and Danzo stood up.

"Shimura Danzo, leader of the Shimura clan. Same as my right." Of course Danzo would worm his way into this meeting using his clan as an excuse. Hiruzen planned on letting him in anyway.

"Hyuga Hisashi, leader of the Hyuga clan. As my right." This man had long black hair and plain white eyes which was a trait of his clan. He wore a plain white robe with a brown coat. He sat down and the man to his left stood up.

"Uchiha Fugaku, leader of the Uchiha clan. Same as my right." This man had short black hair that touched his shoulders and creases under his eyes. He wore a simple greenish kimono and grey pants. This man was Itachi's father. He sat down and Homura stood up.

"Mitokado Homura from the Konoha Council. As my right. The other clan leaders are busy and cannot attend the meeting. Does everyone who is not a clan leader acknowledge the confidentiality of this meeting and their right to speak in it."

"We do." The combined voices of Hotaru, Itachi, Setsuna, and Anko sang throughout the room. Kakashi was too busy reading to speak. This earned him an elbow in the gut from both Hotaru and Anko.

"We do." Kakashi said as he caught his breath. Kakashi now wore the standard Konoha jounin uniform with his forehead protector covering his scarred eye. He still adorned that mask that covered the bottom half of his face.

"Good." Hiruzen decided to not waste time. "Now I know that all of you have heard the reason for this meeting. And that is the defection of Namikaze Naruto. The topics that we need to…" Hiruzen was cut off by a voice outside the room.

"You can't go in there." The voice Hiruzen recognised as Shiranui Genma, one of the Fourth's personal bodyguards and now one of his own bodyguards.

"Why not?" A girl's voice rang through the door.

"Is that..?" Hiruzen started to ask but his question was answered for him.

"Rei-chan." Setsuna said before she walked over to the door and swung them open. "What are you doing here? You should be asleep."

"But I want to know why Naruto-niisan left the village." The little girl pleaded, but Setsuna was not in the right state of mind to put up with it.

"Go away. These things have nothing to do with you." Setsuna said before trying to close the door on the girl. However Rei was too far in and the door didn't close properly.

"But…"

"Rei-chan." Hiruzen stood up and started walking over to the girl. "You are not allowed to be in this meeting. Only clan heads and people we ask for can be here. If you come by my office tomorrow I will talk with you then." Hiruzen's words got Rei to stop, but she didn't want to leave without getting what she wanted.

"Um… I'm sorry for this Hokage-sama." Urushi who had been standing behind Rei spoke up. This earned him a death stare from Setsuna. Her eyes were screaming 'Why did you bring her here?' but he ignored it for the time being. "If this is a meeting for clan leaders then Rei-chan is allowed to be here."

"And why do you say that?" Hiruzen asked curiously. He had never directly met this child before, but he was confident enough to speak to the Hokage straight away. He was interesting to say the least.

"The topic of this meeting is to address Naruto and him leaving the village. Since Naruto has defected, Rei is now the only Uzumaki in this village and thus she becomes the Uzumaki clan head." This got a laugh out of Danzo. "Am I wrong?"

It was Danzo's turn to speak. "Just because she is the only child with a special name does not mean it is a recognised clan."

"It is recognised enough to have its symbol on the back of every Konoha flak jacket. A better question is why are you Shimura Danzo from the Shimura clan here? You're clan is no longer recognised as separate from your average civilian. And like the Uzumaki clan you have no compound, so why are you here?" Urushi had hit the point of no return. It was too late to take back what he said.

"I will give you three seconds to take that back boy." Danzo now stood up. He was not happy that some no name genin was talking to him like this.

"Enough Danzo." Hiruzen's voice stopped Danzo from moving. "Shikaku, is the Uzumaki clan still registered as a clan?"

"Yes it is, Hokage-sama." Shikaku smiled. "Is it a dead clan, but it still exists. So she is technically a clan leader." Rei smiled widely and thanked Urushi, but Shikaku continued to speak. "However, as the Hokage you can simply remove it from the list of clans now."

"I wouldn't want to disrespect the relationship that Konoha had with the Uzumaki clan by doing something like that. She is recognised as the Uzumaki clan leader. However Rei-chan, I would not advice saying anything rash during this meeting." Hiruzen then looked at Urushi. "I ask that you stay beside her and make sure she conducts herself appropriately."

"Thank you." Rei beamed as she walked over to the seat in between Hisashi and Fugaku. Urushi stood directly behind her.

"Okay. Now that there are no more interuptions." Hiruzen walked back to his chair and sat down. "The topics that we need to address tonight are whether we consider Naruto as a rouge shinobi, if he is what bounty we will assign to him, and finally do we send any of our own shinobi after him." All the adults around the table nodded their heads, while Rei looked a little confused. She was still too young to know about any of this, she just wanted to know why he left the village. Urushi understood that he was going to be Rei's representative if any issue was addressed. He didn't like this but he had no choice. "First up. Anko will give her report."

Anko stepped forward and begun explaining the situation surrounding Naruto's defection, especially the final conversation that they had. She was struggling to even speak but this was important. If she wasn't unconscious then she would have done the same for Orochimaru when he left the village. She also felt guilty. If she didn't panic when Naruto first told her then she may have been able to call for help before he could escape. Logically it wouldn't have mattered considering Naruto's ability to teleport places, but she was far from thinking logically.

When Anko finished Danzo was the first to speak. "So in other words he had no lingering attachments in the village, and found it too tedious to stay."

"When I'm bored I just take a nap, not leave the village." Shikaku muttered under his breath which brought a smile to Inochi and Chouza's faces.

"How much of a threat do you think he is to this village?" Hiruzen could waste no time, he had to push this matter along.

"In my honest opinion. I believe that he poses no threat to the village. However going on the basis that I could not detect his troubled thoughts, I cannot say."

"Thank you for your honesty Anko." Hiruzen nodded which allowed Anko to step back with the rest of those standing.

"He left because he was bored?" Rei turned and asked Urushi. "I get bored at the Orphanage but that's not a reason to leave it." Rei didn't understand that was only a part of the reason. Naruto had lost both of his parents, that was a pain Urushi knew all too well. Rei never had anyone to begin with, so her being alone wasn't as hard on her as it was others. But that is why Urushi keeps the kids at the Orphanage close enough to be considered family, so they can avoid that pain.

"Hotaru, you were the boy's jounin. What are your thoughts on the matter?" Hiruzen ushered the pale skinned jounin forward.

"Hokage-sama. I do not believe that Naruto poses a threat to the village." Hotaru's words held doubt that those at the table did not fail to pick up on (excluding Rei).

"And what is your reason for that?" For the second time that night Hisashi spoke.

"I have no reason." Hotaru said as she stepped back.

Hiruzen just rubbed his beard in thought. "Kakashi. Your turn."

The masked jounin rolled his eyes as he stepped forward. "In all honesty Hokage-sama. I believe Naruto poses the biggest threat to the village since Orochimaru." With that most of the room became intrigued. Hotaru started to stare daggers into Kakashi's back, while Anko shivered at the mention of old mentor.

"Do explain." Hiruzen could tell that Kakashi didn't want to talk, but when asked by the Hokage you better damn start speaking.

Kakashi rolled his visible eye but continued anyway. "From a personal level I would like to say he poses no threat. He is my sensei's child. However, he knows two high level jutsu that are supposed to be unique to this village. The Hiraishin, and the Rasengan. Not only that, but his knowledge of fuinjutsu is second to none in the village. I believe that he has the potential to become the biggest threat to our village if he wishes to turn against us." The members of the table thought hard about what Kakashi had said. He was right, he is a major threat. (Except Rei of course. She was trying her hardest not to fall asleep. It was well past the Orphanage's bed time.)

Shikaku was the next to speak. "A personal question Kakashi, even if he was this big of a threat why are you speaking so openly about this? I figured you would take a stance similar to Hotaru's."

"Normally I probably would have. But if what I fear the most comes to fruition then the village is at serious risk of being destroyed, and we will not be strong enough to stop it. If Orochimaru and Naruto team up, I do not think we will be able to hold them back as well as keep enough strength to ward off other villages. If they team up, I believe Konoha is doomed."

That summed it up for everyone else. That was too big of a risk so they decided to label Naruto as an S-rank criminal, because of his knowledge and a bounty has been put out. Hiruzen also sent out a personal messenger bird to Jiraiya. He needs to know what happened.

X (Three years later) X

An eight year old Uzumaki Rei sat on top of the Orphanage roof again. Today would be her first day at the Academy so she was rather excited. During the recent few years, Rei had become a more outgoing person than before, it seems Urushi and Setsuna's personalities have rub off on her. These last few years have also improved the way the Mother and Father looked at her. Rei had no idea why, but was not going to complain. The Hokage offered her an apartment inside the village however Rei turned it down since she would much rather live outside the village with people who actually see her, rather than inside the village around people who despise her. She closed the book she was reading. This was the last book on the second bookshelf for beginners. A lot of those books were repetitions of the same information, but little snippets of information here and there were different so Rei decided to read every single one. She still wasn't the most efficient at moulding chakra, but she had time at the Academy to learn.

Rei realised that it was time to go so she quickly climbed down and started to run towards to village. She knew that the Orphanage payed for the kids clothes so she offered to get her own. After exploring the Uzumaki clan building she found a draw of clothes that seemed to belong to an Uzumaki woman that was grew up in the village. The outfit she was currently wearing fit her perfectly and there were bigger sized outfits in that draw as well. She now wore a mesh shirt and dark blue shorts covered by a sleeveless yellow kimono looking blouse with a green belt.

Rei continued to run to the village as she became more and more excited. She was about to make new friends. A wind suddenly blew right past her. Without even thinking about stopping, Rei saw an older Setsuna appear in front of her. Her outfit was mostly the same except her hair was a little longer, and the purple jacket she use to wear was now replaced with a chuunin flak jacket. Setsuna cried herself to sleep every night for the month after Naruto left the village. She cried about how she should have said something, should have done something, should have confessed before it was too late, but it was all past tense. Everyone else in the room pretended not to notice, but it was impossible to ignore. Urushi finally did what he could to comfort her, and somehow it worked. Setsuna became resolute and spent more of her time training. She had become a chuunin in the exam a year after her teammates did, and now she was well on her way to becoming a jounin. All she needed was an elemental release, which is incredibly hard to obtain for a taijutsu specialist.

"You forgot your lunch." Setsuna passed Rei a little green bag which had the Uzumaki clan symbol on it.

"Thanks. I was too excited I forgot." Rei gratefully accepted the bag and placed the book she was carrying in it.

"Have fun today. I've got a mission so I won't be back for a couple of days. Cya." Setsuna waved at the younger girl and then disappeared from sight. If you did not know her, you would think that she is showing off. But to someone like Rei who knows her well, Setsuna was merely sprinting in order to challenge herself. Rei started to run towards the Academy again. She knew exactly where it was because she got Urushi to take her there multiple times just so she knew the way.

Since that meeting, the higher ups in the village took an interest in Urushi. Shikaku acknowledges his ability to talk with the proper respect to the higher ups while arguing his point. This was not a skill a genin usually has especially when he was meeting the Hokage and all the clan leaders for the first time. This high expectation for an underwhelming genin surprised the Hokage. Especially when it came from the reasonably lazy jounin commander of the village.

Rei finally made it to the Academy, she didn't know what to expect on her first day but she hoped that she would be able to make some friends. She stopped running as soon as she entered the building, getting into trouble on your first day over something as silly as running inside would be embarrassing. There were signs everywhere for the new students to follow to their classrooms. Rei quickly found her classroom and walked in. Rei was half an hour early (intentionally) so there were only a few kids sitting in seats. After a quick scout of the room Rei walked towards the only other girl in the room. She had short black hair and was looking down. Rei sat down in the seat beside her.

"Hello. My names Rei." The girl didn't look up. "Fine then. Be rude." Rei just sat silently beside the girl who refused to look up. Thirty minutes had past and the room was now full of children however no one sat beside Rei.

"Um…" The girl next to Rei finally spoke. However she did not look up.

"Yes?" Rei tried to edge her onward so she could finally learn her name.

"…Hinata." Under her breath, the girl finally said a name. She was incredibly soft-spoken but at least it was audible.

"So Hinata is your name? So you were just shy." Rei offered the girl a wide smile but she still didn't look up. Rei sighed. This was going to be harder than she thought. "Can I at least see your face? It shouldn't be too hard to show it to me." Hinata hesitated, but understood what Rei was saying so she looked up at the red haired girl.

"Um… sorry." Hinata said as she looked back down.

"Ooooh. You're a Hyuuga." Rei was doing everything she could to hold a conversation. "I am Uzumaki Rei, I've met your clan leader before." This was true even though they never exchanged words.

"Tou-san?" Hinata once again looked up at the girl.

"You're his daughter? Doesn't that make you the clan heir?" Rei curiously asked. Was this shy girl really the next in line for the Hyuuga clan? Judging from Hinata's reaction, it was doubtful.

"Okay everyone. Quieten down." The teacher walked in with a wide smile on his face. He wore the standard chuunin attire, with his forehead protector around his forehead. His brown hair was tied into a short upper ponytail, and he had a distinctive scar running along his nose. "My name is Umino Iruka and I will be one of your teachers during your time at the academy."

XXX

It was lunch time. So far the first half was introductions and a quick knowledge test to see what level everyone in the class was at. Rei thought she did rather well in the basic chakra knowledge, while did poorly in the other aspects like the geography and history of the village. That stuff never really concerned her. Why would she care who the wife of the First Hokage was? They were told that the second half will be an entrance ceremony which would probably be boring, but Rei had to attend. People's relatives were going to be there so the Academy must leave good impression.

They had also learned about the system the Academy takes. Since it was currently a time of peace, the curriculum has been changed into a four year course. You were allowed to take the final exam every year and if you passed then you could graduate, however it was advised that you waited to full four years before you tried. These four years are split up into eight semesters. They were also told that there were currently three classes at their age group so every semester some kids will swap between the classes and possibly get a new teacher.

The three classes were let outside where they could eat their lunch under the watchful eyes of Iruka and two other teachers. Rei had to drag Hinata out of the classroom and to the bench that they currently sat on. The two of them were eating their individual lunch in silence. Rei had tried on multiple occasions to strike up a conversation, but the incredibly introverted Hyuuga barely responded. For some reason she couldn't just leave the Hyuuga girl alone, maybe because she could have been like that if not for Setunsa and Urushi's influence.

"Come one Hinata. Talk to me." Rei placed her bento down and bent down to try to see Hinata'a face. "How can we be friends if you won't even talk to me?" The Hyuuga refused to take her eyes off of her own bento.

"Sorry… I am not good at this." Hinata clenched harder onto her bento. It looked as though she was seriously trying to make a friend. Rei couldn't understand her circumstances in the Hyuuga clan, and Hinata didn't really want to tell someone she just met. Maybe if they stayed friends.

"Maa. Don't worry about it." Rei casually leaned back. "Besides, it looks like a lot of the other kids here already have friends from before." Rei noted that a large amount of 'groups' were already established. Most of them seemed to be familiar with one another. Hinata and Rei were apparent exceptions to this. There was another exception who was sitting alone at the edge of the field. Rei had met this boy on multiple occasions. That boy was Uchiha Sasuke, and from what Rei learned from him he wasn't the easiest person to approach. What most people saw was the mark on the back of his shirt. The Uchiha clan symbol was well renowned and it was assumed that everyone with that crest was an awesome shinobi. That was why he sat alone. Rei would have walked up to him, but she was already busy trying to cement a friendship, and she didn't think Hinata would be able to meet a second person in one day.

XXX

"Everyone congratulations on entering. From this day forth, please work hard to follow the shinobi way." And with that the Third Hokage ended the opening ceremony. As soon as it finished, the group of children all ran towards their parent to talk to them about stuff like 'how exciting it is to finally be in the Academy' and 'that was such a boring entrance ceremony'. Rei just turned and walked away from the group of parents. She knew that no one from the Orphanage would be able to come so it didn't concern her.

They were told that after the ceremony they could go home so Rei intended to do just that. She just needed to grab her bag from underneath the tree where they left them. It was there she saw two friends talking. One appeared very outspoken and had yellow short hair with bluish green eyes. The other had pink hair that was held up by a ribbon, she also had green eyes. Rei just walked past them. She could have tried to talk to them but they probably would have families here that wouldn't want them to hang around her so she didn't bother.

That was until she heard them say something. "Hey doesn't she look like a tomato?" The pink haired girl whispered to the yellow haired girl. With that Rei's ears pricked.

"You shouldn't say that about people. Although I do see it from behind." Once again Rei's ears twitched. Rei had found her bag and started to walk towards to two girls. As soon as Rei was upon them she smiled.

"You shouldn't talk about people you don't know." Rei's smile sent a shiver down Ino's spine.

"What? I'm not wrong. You look like a tomato." But Sakura didn't notice the subtle tone in Rei's voice.

"Of course you are right." Rei nodded in agreement which caused the yellow haired girl to back off slightly. "Do you know what you look like? An apple." Sakura tilted her head in confusion. "You know, red and bruised all over."

XXX

"HOW CAN YOU ALREADY BE FIGHTING ON YOUR FIRST DAY HERE?!" One Umino Iruka can never find peace at his job. He expected the day to go on without a hitch. Wake up, meet a group of new kids, try to learn as many of their names as he could, watched them play around, partake in the opening ceremony, finish up some paperwork that accompanied the start of a semester, go home and relax. But now he was standing over three girls yelling at them while three parents stood a few meters away.

"She called me a tomato." Rei turned her head away as she sulked. Rei had a few bruises on her body. The yellow haired girl who she now knew was named Ino, jumped in to help the pink haired girl, Sakura when Rei started beating her with her bag. So obviously those two were in a worse shape than Rei was. You don't just live at the Konoha Orphanage and not know how to brawl.

"YOU STILL DON'T ATTACK PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY CALLED YOU NAMES! YOU TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT IT!" Iruka rubbed his temples. "Just don't do it again."

"You were bullied as a child weren't you Iruka-sensei." Rei innocently asked.

"THAT'S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING!" Iruka was done with kids. Why did he become a teacher at the Academy again?

"I'm sorry Iruka-sensei. I will not fight with Sakura-san or Ino-san again." Rei sincerely bowed, which caused Iruka to stumble slightly. He couldn't tell if he was being toyed with by an eight year old or not.

Sakura and Ino also bowed slightly. "We're sorry." Even though they were worse off, they were partially at fault.

"It's fine. Just don't do it again." Iruka walked off. He really needed to remember why he put up with these kids.

Rei turned to Ino and Sakura whose parents were now standing behind them. Rei recognised the man behind Ino. "Inoichi-sama." Rei bowed politely to the man before turning back to the girls. "I am sorry. I have a rather short temper." Rei rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"No. It's this girls fault." Ino pushed Sakura slightly. "She used to be very shy so she's not very good at speaking to people just yet." Sakura mumbled under her breath but made sure no one heard her.

"Come on Sakura. It's time to go home." Sakura's mother quickly grabbed her daughters are and started to drag her away. Rei looked into her eyes and could see the fear directed at Rei. She didn't know what she did to deserve such a look, and it hurt her that they would look at her that way without knowing her first.

"Bye Ino." Sakura called out to the girl as she walked away with her parents. Rei started to look a little bit depressed, but Inoichi wasted no time in snapping her out of it.

"It has been a while Uzumaki-san." Ino gave her father a confused look. Where would these two have met before?

"Just call me Rei-chan like the rest of the adults. I'm not special enough that you need to call me 'san'." Rei looked straight at the man. The Mother at the Orphanage was sure to drill the proper manners towards her elders after she found out that Rei had been officially recognised as a clan head.

"I understand. We will be taking our leave. Take care Rei-chan." Inochi grabbed her daughters hand and started to walk away. Rei just sighed. Today was more eventful than she thought it would be. After a quick stretch Rei started to walk back towards the Orphanage. She was in no rush.

X (Half a year later) X

Once again Rei sat on top of the Orphanage reading one of her books. The sun had just started to rise, but the wake up rule no longer applied to her due to her shinobi-in-training status. Her first semester at the Academy has ended. Over that semester she made a few friends. Although that was after she beat them within an inch of their life for calling her a tomato. She had rarely met Ino and Sakura since that day, but her friendship with Hinata had made massive leaps considering Hinata's introverted personality. The two of them could now actually hold a fluid conversation. Hinata no longer stuttered when talking to Rei, but it was still hard for her to talk to anyone else. When Rei's results came in she was excited. Even though they teach you a range of topics at the Academy, the ones that are graded are more shinobi skills focused. She had ranked in the top three for all matters except teamwork. No matter how many books she read, they never taught how to work in a team. She wasn't worried about it though. When she was finally a shinobi and got a team, then she would worry about teamwork. Until then she would focus on everything else.

"Why are you always up here reading? There are better places to read." Setsuna suddenly appeared behind Rei. "What are you reading now?"

"This place is nice. It's comfortable." Rei said as she placed her bookmark at her page and closed the book. She then showed the cover to Rei. "This is '_You're the failure at fuinjutsu? So what? A retards guide to finding your own style of fuinjutsu that works for you._'"

"That's a rather… interesting title isn't it?" Setsuna commented.

"If you think that's interesting read his note at the beginning." Rei passed the book to Setsuna. "It's by Jiraiya of the Legendary Sanin."

"Oooh. I've heard of him. He was Tsunade-sama's teammate. If Jiraiya-sama wrote this then it must be a good book." Setsuna's eyes sparkled as she turned to the second page where the authors note started. Setsuna coughed as she prepared to read.

"I wouldn't read that out if I were you…" Rei warned but Setsuna didn't listen.

"_This book is dedicated to all of the shinobi who died in the pointless thing we call war. They all died for what they believed was the greater good. I'm not trying to slander their name but war itself is stupid. People killing people for the sake of those in charge. If only simple diplomacy was actually effective then maybe the death toll can be greatly reduced in this world of shinobi that we live in._

_Now enough about that. Let's start talking about you who actually opened this book. I must applaud your ability to acknowledge your shitty skills enough to open a book with a title that slanders your name. Now that we know you aren't the sharpest tool in the shed, let me tell you something. I originally had no intention of writing this trash manual. One of my students forced me to write this and so I said I would have fun doing it. And the only way that would happen is my making fun of you poor readers who actually grabbed this book. Now before you slam this book shut from the large number of insults throughout, I ask you to keep reading this pre-information note._

_Time for a little context on me. My teacher is an amazing man. He is probably the only man I look up to with a huge amount of respect. For those of you who know about me, then you know this man is Sarutobi Hiruzen the Third Hokage. Me and my two other teammates looked up to him with pride. We could stand back with a smile and say that is our teacher. Oh I'm rambling. My point was that in my team I was the unskilled and untalented shinobi who worked his ass off to get to where I am now. So I have earned to right to laugh at your expense._

This isn't that bad." Setsuna commented.

"Keep reading."

"_Now to the more important topic of your gender. If you are a man then I really don't care and am not interested. If you see me in the street just keep walking by and pretend you have never read this book. Keep it as a secret so you can hold your pride. Now if you are female what I said above does not comply. If you see me in the street I want you to majestically run into my arms screaming "JIRAIYA-SAMA KYAAAAAA!" and I will catch you and take you to my place after a round of drinks, so we can…_" There was an ink stain that completely covered the next few sentences.

"I see what you mean." Setuns dryly commented.

"It gets worse."

"_Oh and if you are an underage girl I suggest you wait a few years until we can legally do the above. Although I imagine most women have already closed this book now so there is no need to worry. So I shall now keep writing with the assumption that the reader is male. So you inept virgin punks who probably don't even know what the female body looks like. I suggest you read this book from cover to cover so you can become badass enough to have women crawling at your feet. This book will help you achieve the level of growth that a certain blonde teammate of mine's chest has over the years. In case you have never met the slug princess I shall explain what I am referring to._

_When I first met her she was as flat as a board. She was flat enough that if her back was straight and she fell off a cliff, her nose would hit the wall first. Yeah, that flat. As the years went by, they grew and grew and grew. The thing is they didn't stop. Okay time for an imagination exercise. Think about a mountain. Just a normal boring mountain. Then you look behind that mountain and see an even larger mountain that you can't see the top of since it is in the clouds. Now imagine that the breasts of the girl's in the porn mag's you have stashed under your floorboards (Yes I know you hide them there. I think every man does that. Underneath the bed in a box is too cliché and obvious.). Now picture that first small mountain is her breasts, and those breasts are big. Tsunade's are those mountains with the tips you can't see. Yes THEY ARE THAT BIG!_

Well he's not wrong about the size." Setsuna commented with a pained expression.

"Seriously that big?"

"I think he was under exaggerating." Both girls looked down at their still developing chests and hoped for a well-developed future.

"_I am soooo glad she is not interested in fuinjutsu so she will never pick this up and read it. I don't think I would survive the beating. If any of you are into that however just walk up and call her flat chested. I got her into a habit of punching anyone who said that, you can thank me later. Now enough about your secret fetishes and Tsunade's cup size. (They specially make her bra's.) I actually had to reread what I wrote to remember my point. YOU CAN GET WOMEN CRAWLING! Wait I reread it again. You can grow just as much as Tsunade's chest._

_The key component for fuinjutsu that is most commonly lost among the wanting to learn the higher level fuinjutsu's and that is the simple concept of style. YES PEOPLE. We are finally getting to the main point. As I said earlier, you guys suck. No seriously. You opened this book that has done nothing but make sexist remarks and insult you and haven't chucked it away. You are either hoping for some godlike method of improving you skills or you know of my reputation and are expecting some sort of secret that I have left in here._

_I am sorry to say this, but there is no such thing. This is a guide to helping you find your own style of fuinjutsu, but I promise you this, this gives you an advantage over those stiffs who have amazing talent and only learn strict theories (*cough cough* Orochimaru you asshole *cough cough* Why did I even write the coughs? Too much of a hassle to remove.). Fuinjutsu is the most adaptable style of fighting since it has an answer to everything, but how could a taijutsu specialist use a seal that takes five minutes to draw up? How can a genjutsu specialist use a seal that disrupts someone's chakra flow? This is where style comes in. Developing your own fuinjutsu that mixes well with your own individual style of combat is where we untalented dropouts have a chance at success._

_I hope this book helps you develop your own style. But to be honest I think it will probably be sealed or censored at multiple times throughout this book. My student's wife has got that boy whipped. I just hope he hasn't ripped up him man card yet. There may still be hope for him. And she is going to kill me if she reads this._

The hell did I just read?" Setsuna stared at the page for a little longer before slamming the book shut. "THE HELL DID I JUST READ?! WHY IS A SEXIST PIG LIKE THIS ALLOWED TO WRITE A BOOK!?"

"To be honest. It is probably one of the most informative books that I have read so far. He is the only person who hasn't been strict about fuinjutsu. Normally it needs to be incredibly strict since a simple wrong character can cause the death of its user, but Jiraiya-sensei somehow made it proper, with a hint of fun and uniqueness. It was even enjoyable, although some parts were blanked out. I have to thank who ever proofread this book." Rei looked towards the sun. She honestly admired the man, even though he was a massive open pervert.

"Heh. Well Tsunade-sama wasn't exactly the best role model either. She drunk a lot and gambled just as much. My trip to Konoha involved more running away from loan sharks then actual walking." Setsuna thought about the past a little bit. She wanted to see the Legendary Sanin again, even though she would never come by Konoha.

"Being weird must be a requirement to becoming a skilled shinobi."

"I'm not weird."

"Hey look fish." Rei pointed to the other side of the roof. Setsuna instantly bolted in that direction. Rei couldn't keep up with her speed. Setsuna stopped just before the edge.

"You lied didn't you?" Setsuna looked a little sad.

"Yes I'm sorry." Tears formed in Setsuna'a eyes. She really liked fish. "Cats are such a hassle." Rei said as she stood up. "It's about time for the others to wake."

"You're right." Setsuna was now beside Rei. "Do you see that?" Setsuna squinted as she looked towards the village. "It's Hokage-sama." Setsuna gasped slightly.

"Jii-chan? What does he want?" Rei curiously asked.

"Let's tell Mother. She needs to be ready."

XXX

The room was dead silent. The children of the Orphanage were told to stay outside. There have been quite a few new kids joining since Rei. With funding from Setsuna, Urushi and the Hokage, they were able to get more beds and house more kids. Not only that but a second building had been built around the back with single rooms for those getting too old to share. In this current room sat Rei, Urushi, the Mother, the Father and the Hokage. Setsuna was sitting in the room, but she quickly ran to her own room in the back house when she heard the news.

"Are you sure?" Urushi asked. "Did that really happen?" Urushi was the first to speak since Setsuna stormed out. Most of them were in disbelief.

"We'll leave you guys alone for this." The Father said as he grabbed the Mother's arm and dragged her out.

"Unfortunately yes. Uchiha Itachi has gone rouge massacred his entire clan. Not only that but he enlisted the help of Namikaze Naruto."

"He was an ANBU. Why would he do that?" Urushi's question was met with silence.

"What about Sasuke?" Rei finally spoke. Rei and Sasuke were not close, but they had interacted on more than enough occasions to become friends. "Is he…"

"No. He was the only survivor. It turns out the man could not harm his younger brother. Or I would like to believe, Sasuke has not woken up yet so we just don't know." The Hokage looked down a little upset. He knew more that he was allowed to say. There was something working in the background for this that he knew about, but if he said it, it would all be ruined.

"So what now? Another meeting?" Rei curiously asked. She had been to a few of the meeting more as a presence. Danzo insisted that she be there since she had taken the title of clan leader. It was more of a way for him to spite her without doing anything directly.

"Yes. Although, I would ask that you stay with Sasuke rather than attend this one. Danzo doesn't mind." Rei nodded her head. "Urushi can take your place."

"Yes Hokage-sama." Urushi internally rolled his eyes. He had to go to every meeting that Rei did, and even some of them that she couldn't attend. This is what happens when the village's second in command takes an interest in you.

"Come now. Let's go."

XXX

Sasuke rolled around in pain again. He was still asleep but whatever happened to him must have been extremely painful. Rei just sat beside him hoping that he would wake up soon.

"Don't let this beat you Sasuke." Rei silently prayed for the boy's wellbeing. She knew the pain of having nothing. Rei looked outside the nearby window. It had a perfect view of the Hokage monument. She gazed at the four faces made of stone. There was so much death in the world and there was no way to stop it all. That single though caused Rei to get depressed. Jiraiya had pointed out in his book that war in itself is a pointless concept that it apart of human nature. Rei agreed with this completely. But Jiraiya also said that it was a complete necessity. People understand each other through fighting, or so he said. Rei disagreed with this point, there has to be a way to stop all of this war. "I will stop this. I don't know how, but I will stop this."

* * *

**A/N**

The first chapter of A Simple Secret is done. I hope you all enjoyed how this started so please tell me what you think. I split this chapter up into two, one part Naruto and the other Rei. This will not be the format of other chapters but rather one chapter will be Naruto and the next Rei and so on. This way I don't drown you with text every update. Aside from that I have nothing to say.

Signing out Comfy Cushion


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